


Reality Chronicle (MLP)

by IntrestsoftheMind



Category: My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-05-04 17:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 47,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14598150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IntrestsoftheMind/pseuds/IntrestsoftheMind
Summary: Stories have many different variables to change how they work. This situation is no different. Equestria is filled with various ponies all trying to do their best at what they're talented in. For a colt and his friends its no different...maybe just a little bit unique. (A fun little side story told from another reality.)





	1. Where we start Pt. 1

Within the expanse of our realm and others, the same people we know can be found in multiple universes either going against each other or coming together as one. The same can be said for a certain boy…or should I say a certain young colt and his three friends.

I fell back into the dirt of the castle courtyard a rubbed my scruffy brown mane with my hove as I stretched out my wings, another training session and I still couldn't get it down; getting back on all fours I got back into my stance.

"You're going to have to try harder than that to be a castle guard Soren." Shining Armor said chuckling in front of me.

"I know but it's not that easy. I mean…you're captain of the royal guards and I'm still just a rookie." Picking up my wooden practice sword with my teeth I put it back in the sheath on my back.

"Even with all that you still hold yourself back, you're one of our best recruits against earth ponies because you fight like one. Try using your wings in combat." He pointed to my sky blue wings as I folded them back in bashfully.

"No, I can't, fear of heights and all." He chuckled as I said that but I couldn't blame him, no one has ever heard of a Pegasus with a fear of heights…well there was one back at the academy but I can't remember her name for the life of me.

"Even so, you can still get some extra distance and height without going to high up."

"What do you mean?"

"Well when you jump try flapping once and you'll get some extra air in your jump, if you run and jump then you can glide for some extra distance." I've never tried that before, seemed obvious in retrospect, "Give it a try." I gave a heavy gulp and crouched low.

"Okay…one, two…three!" As I lifted into the air I gave a strong flap and rose higher into the sky; the good news was that it wasn't high enough to make me queasy, I landed back down with a thud and fell on my butt again.

"Small flaps on the way down would help with that." Right, go to remember that. I got back up and took a running start and when I felt I was fast enough I leapt forward and spread my wings causing me to glide as I slowly descended, when my hooves landed on the ground I tumbled forward onto my face, "Straightening your legs or coming down in a run might help that." Again…obvious in retrospect but my brain couldn't figure it out in time, "Nice job though…now show me what you can do with what I taught you." Right! I pulled my wooden sword back out and swung as he blocked, he thrusted at me and I back stepped before jumping up and flapping soaring over him and before I hit the ground I gave one large flap to make landing on the ground less painful and caught him off guard as I struck his backside. He turned around and shot a beam of magic at me knocking me back a few meters; I ran forward and then glided at him as he shot beams of magic, I curved left and right dodging his shots and as I came closer I stuck my hooves into the ground skidding forward and stopping in front of him as I thrust into his center as my blade was stopped by his armor.

He gave me a wide smile as I panted and brought me in for a noogie.

"That's what I'm talking about, you're a quick learner!" I pushed him back and ruffled my mane back to its normal scruffy consistency; it was true what he said though; when it came to repetitive practice I never caught on quick enough for the normal captains but when I was in practice combat I showed how well I knew the move and it would blow the other trainees out of the water with my skill. After a while Shinning Armor requested that I become his personal protégé and learn from him personally. I will admit that it was better to learn from him then the others, he didn't yell at me for screwing up multiple times; every time he found a method that wasn't working he twisted it around to help me understand it and this was a good example of it.

"Seems he's going to best you one of these day Shining Armor." I looked up to see the ruler of Equestria Princess Celestia giving us a gentle smile; the ruler of the day and the night was visiting us…the one person I respected above all others…well, besides Shinning Armor that is. I bowed and the Princess waved her hoof for me to raise my head, "Shinning Armor may I borrow your protégé for a moment?"

"Of course Princess, you behave now." He said winking at me; he never was a very serious pony when there was no danger and that made him easier to relate to for me and that made him more respectable. I walked off with the princess as we traveled down the long hallway until we came into a room with stain glass widows depicting historical events from when Celestia stopped her sister all the way back to when she and Luna sealed Tirek away in Tartarus. Most people have let these pieces of history fall in legend but my mother and father made sure that I never forgot that these were real events in history and I never forgot that.

"I take it your training has been going well?" When she spoke I came back to this world and looked to see she was already at the end door.

"Well…as well as they could be…few issues on time it takes but I'm getting better."

"That's good to hear, any new friends?"

"Well…friends are kind of hard to come by when I'm Shinning Armor's personal protégé. Other ponies haven't really been very eager to talk with me." It was a bit more than that but since I had been taken under Shinning Armor's wing…metaphorically of course; other ponies were either intimidated or jealous by what I was able to accomplish and being better than them in sparring matches didn't help the situation either. Even before that though other ponies found me kind of dim and didn't like spending time with a Pegasus who was afraid of heights…not an ideal friend situation but as long as I could become a guard I could do what I was destined to do, protect this land and the Princess. My cutie mark was a shield with a unicorn horn, pair of wings and a mound of dirt in a triangle formation with a blade in the center; from the first time I saw it I knew I would be a royal guard who would protect all races of ponies in the land of equestrian.

"Well then I think this might just be the mission for you."

"Mission? I'm still a trainee so I can't be sent off on jobs yet, besides there have got to be better people you could send." She gave a slight giggle and turned back to me.

"Well this is a mission I want you to take on personally and if rank is a problem I could promote you to knight." My mouth was a gape at what she just said; knight?

"Are you sure, I mean, most trainees have to work years to even be considered to become a knight of the royal guards and then there's a giant test you have to take and-"

"Soren." I stood at attention and she gave a slight giggle, "You've excelled farther than most recruits and even Shinning Armor was considering applying you for the knights' test." Really? He thought I could be a knight? It's flattering, "Trust me when I say you are the only one who can do this." She looked me in the eyes with a sense of trust that made my heart thump like a drum.

"Okay Princess, I'll do it."

"Thank you." She touched her horn to my shoulders and stood back up with a regal attitude, "I hereby dub thee, Knight Soren." With her magic she brought over a long black coat and handed it to me, "Your gift as a knight, I hope this coat will help you in your job as a knight and your mission." I slipped my front hooves through the holes and looked back to see it reached all the way to my flank and fell just above the middle of my back legs; it felt cozy and warm…must be coated with some sort of warmth magic because it looked pretty thin, "That cloak will keep your body temperature constant and comes with a pocket so when you put something in it doesn't weigh you down." Functional and cool, I like it!

"What was the mission you wanted to send me on?" I asked deciding we had wasted enough time.

"Of course, do you know my student Twilight Sparkle?" Sounds...vaguely familiar.

I sat in the chariot with Princess Celestia's student as we went over…I wasn't sure actually, looking over the edge was not something I was willing to do; the pony next to me was a purple mare with a darker purple mane with pink lines. She was sulking as we rode to Ponyville and her dragon assistant was reading out the rest of the letter she got from the Princess.

"I want you to oversee the preparations for the sun festival in Ponyville in my absence, make sure everything is going as planned and more importantly, make some friends." As he said that last part she gave a heavy sigh.

"I don't have time to make friends Spike, with Nightmare Moon coming back I need to find out as much as possible to stop her!" Did she say Nightmare Moon!

"Sorry but what was that about?" I asked and she looked down at me.

"Nightmare Moon is coming back on this, the thousandth year since her imprisonment and soon she will bring eternal night. I have to stop her!" By this point she was in my face with wide eyes before backing up, "Sorry. This is a big problem though; if she comes back then we'll all be in big trouble." She was right about that, eternal night wasn't ideal outside weather for…anyone, not even owls or raccoons and if Nightmare Moon took over then I would be out of a job and possibly a life.

"Speaking of the unexpected, why did you come along?"

"Princess Celestia assigned me to accompany you on this trip; she said it would be good for me so here I am."

"Well it seems like this should be pretty simple so let's just check on the preparations and then head to the library."

"Are you sure you don't want to just try talking to ponies in this town?" Spike intervened, he pointed to a pink pony with a poofy mane bouncing towards us, "They might have interesting things to say." With a sigh Twilight approached the pony and gave her a friendly greeting.

"Hello." The pink pony suddenly gave a gasp and rushed right past us towards the far distance, "Well that was interesting." For me it was, that's the first time I've seen an earth pony suspended in the air for more than a few seconds.

We approached the apple orchard to see two ponies kicking the trees making the apples fall from the tops, one was an orange mare with blond hair tied at the end and wearing a western style hat; her cutie mark was three apples shining and red. The other was a brown colt with a black short cut mane and had a red horseshoe covered in dirt as his cutie mark; his eyes were a light red color and gave off the feeling of duty and strength. As we approached them they stopped what they were doing and came over to greet us.

"Hi I'm Twilight Sparkle and-" Before she could finish the orange mare grabbed her hoof and vigorously shook it with such ferocity I was afraid it would fall off.

"Howdy do there Twilight Sparkle welcome to Sweet Apple Acers, my name is Applejack and if there's one thing this farm likes it's making new friends." She quickly let go of Twilight and came over to me doing the same to me, "And what might your name be partner?"

"Soren." I replied as she shook my hoof to death.

"Nice to meet you Soren, meet my friend Gareth, he ain't part of the apple family but he's helped out so much he might as well be, say hi Gareth."

"Good meetin you Soren, where you two from anyway?" He asked as he pushed a few of the barrels around.

"We're from Canterlot, here to check on the preparation for the Sun Festival." I responded as he continued to work.

"So you two are high class ponies huh?" He gave me a smirk, "So I'm guessing you never worked a day in your life."

"I'm not from Canterlot, I'm from Cloudsdale."

"So you're up in the clouds?" He's trying to antagonizing me and it's starting to work.

"I'll show you I'm made of, I'm not a knight for nothing!" He laughed and then pointed to a few barrels.

"I've got about twenty barrels left to get to the barn, if you can get more of them to the barn before I can then I'll admit you aren't just a high class pony who never worked, deal?"

"Deal!"

"Food, check!" Spike checked off something on his list and looked at me then laughed, "You okay there Soren?"

"Owww." I rubbed the red mark on my head from bumping into that last barrel; I managed to get ten barrels before he did but the last barrel was a bit of a challenge as it was his last to, I ended up running into the barrel and leaving a red mark on my forehead.

"Ugh, I ate too much pie." Twilight groaned as she walked; her gut was sticking out under her sloshing around, too much pie indeed, "What's next on the agenda?"

"We're supposed to meet with a pony named Rainbow Dash about clearing the skies." Spike said, I looked up to see clouds all over the sky lazily drifting around without a care.

"She's obviously not doing her job." Twilight said smarmily; suddenly she was run down by a blue blur as someone bumped into me knocking me over.

"Oh sorry, I was trying to catch up to Rainbow Dash when she went too fast and that's when I went to fast. Hehehe, sorry." I looked to see who had crashed into me to see a dark gray Pegasus with soft red hair down to her neck and a white bow on her head, she wore black glasses and her eyes were a silver color that was soft and gentle, her cutie mark was a book with a pencil writing on the page with a pair of wings on the right page bottom corner.

"Don't worry about it; my name is Soren by the way." I said getting up; I've got to stop eating dirt today.

"I'm Lily, I work with Rainbow Dash to clear the skies and keep the weather constant." I looked back up at the sky to see it was still covered in clouds.

"Seems that's kind of difficult today isn't it?" She gave a chuckle and then sighed.

"Yeah but that's because someone seems to be out of focus today." Lily replied pointing to the rainbow colored mane pony…oh…she's Rainbow Dash; she was busting a gut laughing as she tried to help Twilight get clean from the mud. Twilight now looked like her mane was made of cotton candy with how fluffy and frizzy it was; I worked to hold back a chuckle as Twilight gave me a glare.

"Shouldn't you be clearing the clouds?" Twilight said twisting our attention to Rainbow who was lazily lying on a cloud with her eyes closed; could she even do this?

"Dash." Lily called and Rainbow Dash looked down at her; Lily pulled out a small stop watch and waved it at her, "We've got work to do and maybe you can do it in record time." As she said that Rainbow got a gleam in her eye and took off like a bullet as Lily started the stopwatch; she moved too fast for my eye to keep up with her as she struck cloud after cloud making the sun shine down brighter and brighter every second…no…every millisecond! When she hit the last cloud Lily stopped the watch with a click and pulled out a small clip board writing down the number, "4.27 seconds, that's .71 seconds faster than last time." Lily said and Rainbow started doing loop-de-loops in victory; I looked over at Lily's clipboard to see records dating back to almost a year ago with every day having a different time either going faster or slower in that order with some outliers of time being super slow; must have been sluggish days.

"You keep record of everyday?" I asked in shock of her diligence.

"Yep!" She gave me a gleeful smile as she looked over her clipboard, "I love cataloging about people, I'm not always good at talking to new people but listening about what they accomplished gives me a new idea of who they are and what they can do; it's like a new depth to a person that gives me the chills and I have to catalog those depths or else I don't feel complete." She was really excited as she spoke and I gave a small laugh making her stop, "Sorry, I got a little excited."

"It's okay, I can understand being passionate about something, after all that's why I'm a royal knight." Her eyes widened as I said that and she pulled out a small book from her satchel.

"Really?! You look as old as me and you're already a knight? Amazing, how did you do it? Did you have to train for very long? What style of combat do you prefer? Is that black coat standard knight attire?" She spat off question after question too fast for me to answer and I began to feel my head spin with how to answer her because in all honesty I knew none of these answers; I don't even remember any of the rules from the booklet they handed out at orientation.

"Lily, we've got more clouds to bust, come on!" Rainbow beckoned her over and she put away her book taking to the skies to catch up.

"Time for me to work, we'll talk later Soren, bye!" With that she took off and Twilight waved her hoof in my face trying to get my attention.

"Whatever happened to that manual?"

"Soren!" I jumped as she shouted my name, "Let's hurry, we haven't got much time."

"Right…I'm coming." Maybe that's why the other captains didn't like me.

We entered the town center building to see it was beautifully arranged with different streamers and ribbons hanging from areas all drawing your eye to the upper center stage which seemed to stand out as much more adorned.

"Beautiful." Spike said staring at the center stage in front of us.

"The décor is nice." Twilight said taking in the scenery.

"Not that." Spike replied pointing to the pony working in the center, "That." The pony was a white mare with a long flowing mane that had some bounce to it keeping it out of her eyes, her tail was curled making it lift just slightly off the ground and her cutie mark was three blue diamonds that shinned with a regal shine.

"No, no, no, not that one. Ugh certainly not THAT one." She said using her magic to check ribbon after ribbon tossing aside those she found wouldn't work.

"Are my spines straight, how do I look?" Lover boy Spike.

"Excuse me." Twilight said approaching her.

"Just a moment dear." She replied pulling out a red ribbon and tying it to a bare pole, "Just perfect, the sparkles really work here don't they? Oh Rarity, there's no end to your sense of style." This must be Rarity then, "Sorry about that, now how can I- agh!" She gave a slight shriek as she saw Twilight's poofy and disheveled mane and tail, "Whatever happened to your mane dearie?"

"Oh it's a long story; anyway I'll just check up on the decorations and then be off." Twilight responded.

"No, no, no, no, no my dear I cannot send you off looking like that, come with me." She began to push Twilight and I followed curious of what she would do to fix it. We left the building and came to a small glamorous building that seemed to scream that this place had the look anyone was looking for; we entered the building and Rarity pushed Twilight into the back room leaving me and Spike in the main area with a lot of different clothes. There were so many different styles of clothing but it ranged mostly to formal wear and dresses with little of any outside or casual style; then as I browsed my eyes came upon a small rack in the back that had some casual clothing lined on it. These clothes seemed much cooler in my eyes as they were not only clothes that could get dirty and still look good but they seemed tailored for different labor. There were some overalls and rain boots in a dark brown to keep mud from showing and the boots were water proof making them able to last longer; next to it was a light blue body suit that seemed to match the exact color of the sky making whatever pony that wore this blend into the sky above so as not to attract wild birds. Last was a long flowing purple cape that on the inside had multiple pockets and holders that seemed accustom to a unicorn that was very into magic…kind of like Twilight.

"Can I help you?" I turned around surprised to see a dark red unicorn mare with black hair in a medium ponytail that hung off just off her shoulder looking at me with a skeptical look. Her cutie mark was a unicorn horn enchanting a piece of clothing as it was being sewn with a small needle; her eyes were a deep green that gave the sense of cool and calmness that would make even the most hardened criminal shiver, "These aren't for sale at the moment I'm sorry to say. After the debacle and infamy my unicorn cape has attained I have to go back to the drawing board with all of them." She said shaking her head, "Trixie is going to pay the next time I see her!"

"Are you okay?" She came out of her own head and looked at me with a sigh.

"None of these are for sale. I already told you."

"I don't want any of them; I've already got the coolest piece of clothing ever." I said posing and showing off my coat; she gave me a look of disbelief and then started to laugh.

"Maybe it looks cool but it's totally functionless."

"What!?" Was she dissing my coat form the Princess?

"It's too thin to keep you warm and there are barely any pockets making it just a fashion accessory."

"Shows what you know, it has a special enchantment that keeps your body at a constant temperature and the pockets are lined with magic that sends any item to a small pocket dimension keeping it from weighing me down and making it possible to hold as much as I want." I reached in and pulled out my practice blade and she gave me a surprised look.

"Enchantment?" She took the cloak off me and started examining it from every angle as it floated around her, "I've worked with enchantments before but the pocket dimension spell is definitely out of my range and minor heat spells are all I can do, constant temperature is also tough…who made this?"

"I got it from Princess Celestia before I became a knight."

"You got this from Celestia!? Wait…knight!? Who are you?"

"The name is Soren knight of the Canterlot Royal guards and currently on a mission to protect Twilight Sparkle." I said feeling superior.

"So that's why you're here, I was wondering who Rarity was pushing around." She put the cloak down and began digging into the pockets, "This pocket dimension is so deep I can't even reach the bottom." She dug deeper and deeper and then I heard a squish and she gave a surprised look pulling her hoof out. When it came out it was my half eaten sandwich from earlier today, "Really?" She said giving me a judging look.

"I was going to finish it later." She tossed my coat back at me and I put it back on, "Anyway what's your name?"

"I'm Alice." She responded grabbing the unicorn cloak, "I'm currently working under Rarity as her helper while I practice my own garment creation, speaking of I would like to get a better look at that coat when I get the chance." Suddenly I saw Twilight burst in wearing a luxurious looking saddle, "Emerald center…bad choice."

"Let's go Soren; we have to leave before she dyes my man a different color." With that she bolted off with Spike on her back looking back at where they came from with a loving look in his eyes; lover boy Spike.

"I'll see you later Alice."

"You better, I want to know more about that coat." After saying that she started cutting apart the unicorn cloak in an attempt to redesign it; I headed out the door and I turned back to see Rarity looking around with a gem in her hoof.

"Last is the music." Spike said checking the list; after everything that we checked it seems strange that Celestia sent me on this mission at all, nothing was out of the ordinary and the only thing that attacked Twilight was Rainbow Dash and I don't count that as danger in my book. So why was I here? As we walked I could hear birds chirping in perfect harmony making a beautiful song; suddenly one gave a high picked chirping sound off key and the chorus stopped.

"Sorry mister bird but you're the tiniest bit off key." We approached to see a Pegasus talking to a blue jay in a row of different birds; she had long pink hair that would reach the ground if she were standing on the ground, her cutie mark were three pink butterflies, "A one and a two and a-"

"Hey there!" Twilight shouted catching her attention and scaring off the birds, as they scattered I heard someone stand up and looked over to see a unicorn under a tree stretch their back out.

"Birds go flying again?" She said coming out of the shadows, it was a dark gray mare with a luxurious and beautifully maintained red mane that reached the middle of her neck; her eyes were a brown color that made me feel like she was on a whole other level and it made me weak in the hooves just looking at her. She looked over at me and giggled beckoning me over; I shakily walked over trying to stay on my hooves as best I could.

"So you're Soren?"

"How did you know my name?"

"You met my sister Lily a few hours ago right, she told me about a knight walking around with a purple pony and so far you're the only one who matches that description." So this is Lily's sister; if not for her horn I might have mistaken her for Lily, she looks older than Lily which made her older than me, "She's excited to see you again you know."

"Really?"

"Yep, she has a lot of questions for you."

"Ugh my head almost spin with how many she asked last time." She giggled at my response making me blush.

"Well regardless you should talk to her again."

"If I get the chance I will." She nodded and we started walking as she looked around, "So how are you going to get the birds back?"

"My voice of course." Her voice? I looked down at her flank to see her cutie mark was a line of musical notes that seemed to dance on her flank, "My voice is so soothing and beautiful that I can attract any pony and any animal with ease. Listen and be amazed." She started to sing and I closed my eyes getting lost in her song; I felt all my worries and duties float away on the notes as her voice entered my ears and swirled around my insides. As she sang I heard birds begin to swarm as they flapped around, looks like her voice works after all; I felt my body bump into something and opened my eyes to see I had walked right into her stopping singing as she looked and laughed, "See, ponies walk to me without thinking about it, my name is Sukia by the way." She shook my hoof but I still felt my face heating up as she gave me a gentle smile, "Come little birds, let's get back to Fluttershy." We walked back to see they were gone; where did they go?

"Maybe she headed for the library." I said out loud, "That's where we'll be staying for the night."

"You go on ahead then; I'll keep an eye on these birds while I wait for Fluttershy." She said sitting back under her tree, "Hope to see you again Soren."

"Yo-you-you to Sukia." I stammered out feeling my tongue tie just looking at her, why was I so flustered, this isn't like me; she gave a giggle and I walked away quickly not wanting to make a fool of myself.

I came upon the library to see Twilight, Spike and who I could only assume was Fluttershy talking until Twilight rushed inside shutting the door behind her and I heard a click of a lock; I was locked out and I didn't know a way in.

"She just locked me out, great." As I said that Fluttershy seemed to jump almost five feet and backed up into the door, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, my name is Soren."

"I'm…Fluttershy." She responded meekly.

"I know, Sukia told me. I heard you conduct those birds; it was great till the blue jay went off key."

"Thank you…" She backed up some more avoiding eye contact, was I that scary? Suddenly I felt a hoof under my left and right arm and looked up to see two young foals grabbing me. I looked to see the pink mare from earlier today fall down on a grappling wire grab Fluttershy making her give out a shriek; where was she hanging from!?

"Into the top window!" I felt my body lift off the ground as we were dragged into the air; when we reached the top window the pink mare opened it and we were dropped in to a dark room, I looked over to see Fluttershy was shivering scared.

"Ugh I just want to do my research without a bunch of crazy ponies trying to make friends all the time!" That was Twilight! I looked around and found a light switch on the far wall and flicked it on; when I did the room lit up revealing a gaggle of ponies surrounding Twilight.

"Surprise!" As they said that I felt myself pushed into the center and looked behind me to see it was the two foals from before snickering as I bumped into Twilight; she gave me a look of shock seeing me.

"Where did you go when we visited Fluttershy?"

"Where did YOU go? I went with Sukia to collect birds and when we came back you were gone."

"I walked to the library when we were done, how did you get in if I locked the door?"

"I was kidnapped."

"Hiya!" We both jumped back in surprise as the pink pony appeared out of nowhere, "I'm Pinkie Pie, we met when you came to town and I looked at you three and realized I'd never met you before and I know everyone in Ponyville so I had a great idea and that's when I gasped and realized I had to throw you a party to welcome you. All the friends you've made are here to." I looked around to see she was right, not only were the other girls we'd met here but Alice, Gareth and Lily as well as Sukia; they were in a group at the punch bowl talking to each other. As I approached them their faces lit up a bit and they welcomed me over.

"How's that bruise on your head Soren?" Gareth said teasing me as he brought me over his shoulder, "You showed guts back there kid, I like you!" He gave me a noogie as I pushed him off.

"I don't think you can noogie someone the same age as you Gareth." Lily said drinking her punch.

"He'd do it anyway." Alice added with a chuckle, "Anyway, how do you like Ponyville Soren?" I grabbed a cup of punch and took a big gulp.

"It's great, it's a small town but full of charm and interesting people." I said pointing to Pinkie Pie who was eating a cupcake covered in hot sauce.

"She keeps this town lively; you ever need a party you go to her for ten times what you expected." Sukia said as she daintily drank her punch…why does my throat burn.

"Did someone…do something…to…the punch?" I grabbed another glass and downed it still feeling the burning sense in my throat, with a sigh Alice handed me her punch which I drank numbing the burning feeling, "Ahh…thanks Alice."

"No problem; but you have to watch out for the twins." She said looking at the punch bowl intently, "They added hot sauce to the punch bowl." She held up a small bottle of hot sauce that was next to the bowl; what twins was she talking about? I heard muffled laughter and lifted up the curtain on the table to see a two earth foals hiding under the table; one was a black colt with silver messy hair and the other was a white foal with deep black messy hair, they both had nothing on their flanks and their eyes each had a mischievous glint to them proving they had a thing for causing trouble. When I spotted them they quickly ran away laughing.

"Denys and Penny have a tendency for pranks and Pinkie isn't any help any." Gareth said giving a chuckle; suddenly Twilight seemed to dash off into the upper room shutting the door behind her as she clenched her mouth shut tightly…hot sauce attack.

Hours passed as the night wore on, I kept my wits about me waiting for whatever might happen that the Princess sent me here for but nothing seemed to be happening. Everypony was having fun and we all passed time as we waited for the Sun Festival to start; hopefully the Princess sent me along for nothing…honestly after meeting these ponies I don't think I'd want to see anything bad happen to them.

"I'm gonna go check on Twilight." Spike said heading upstairs; I'd better check on her to, after all I'm supposed to be accompanying her. We entered the room and Twilight was lying on the bed with a pillow on her face telling me she was trying to drown out the noise, "Come on Twilight it's a party down there!"

"No Spike, all these ponies are crazy!" She yelled looking a bit peeved at everything, "No one sees the danger that's about to happen!" She was freaking out to the point that I was starting not to believe her story.

"You can't worry about it now though, if Nightmare Moon is going to show up then we'll have to wait till she shows up." I said and she gave a sigh, "You might as well just party for the moment."

"No thank you Soren, I'd rather stay up here doing research." She replied; I listened downstairs to hear things start to quiet then I heard the front door open and ponies started walking out in groups, the Sun festival must be starting, "Well you're out of time now, the festival is about to start." She looked out the window in shock and then gave a long sigh jumping off her bed and joining me as we walked to town hall.

We entered town hall to see it filled with every pony in town all talking and waiting for the festival to start; suddenly the room went quiet as a light brown pony in glasses took the stage.

"I'm glade everypony could make it to the Sun Festival and join Princess Celestia in the raising of the sun." I absent mindedly looked out the window and looked at the moon to see the mare in the moon disappear before my eyes, I looked over at Twilight who was starting to panic, "Without further ado I present Princess Celestia!" When the curtain opened we were all shocked to see the princess was missing; something was definitely wrong, I could feel it crawling on my back. As everyone panicked I looked around to see a strange blue mist move along the ceiling and drop down onto the stage shocking everyone. It morphed until it turned into a tall slender mare in strange adornment with a flowing otherworldly mane; her eyes had a deep look that if you looked into them for too long you might be swallowed into an abys of never ending darkness.

"Bow before your returning princess!" As her voice thundered everypony around me seemed to cringe except for a select few; Twilight and I kept our bravery strong as did Rainbow and AJ while Rarity and Fluttershy seemed to back up in fear. Lily looked like her nerves were shot as did the twins while Alice, Gareth and Sukia kept their composer with only Sukia giving a look of surprise, "Does no one remember me, does my name mean nothing anymore?"

"I know who you are." Twilight said catching everyone's attention, "Your Nightmare Moon, princess of the moon who was imprisoned in the moon." She gave a menacing smile to Twilight.

"Good to know someone knows of me." She turned where attention to me and slightly cringed…what was that? She returned to her composer quickly, "I hope you all enjoyed your time in the sun because now the moon will reign forever; this night will be eternal!" This must have been what the princess sent me here to do; the only question was how I was supposed to stop an all-powerful Princess of the Moon…and why does it feel like something worse is behind this?


	2. Where we start Pt. 2

"The night shall last forever!" We all stood there in stunned silence as she said those words, the night would last forever; this is definitely not good! I pulled out my practice sword and jumped at her using my wings to reach her and took a swing; as I swung she turned to mist and I fell forward into the stage, she reformed right in front of me and laughed loudly at my attempt before breaking my practice sword in half as she shot a beam of magic at me knocking me off the stage and onto the floor.

"Soren!" I heard Alice shout as she came over with Gareth and Lily who helped me up.

"Thanks." Nightmare Moon chuckled and then turned to a blue mist flying out the window and leaving us all to feel the despair of this situation.

"…what now?" Lily said looking scared, as we worried about what to do next Twilight left the town hall building in a rush as Rarity, AJ, Pinkie and Fluttershy followed with Rainbow leading.

"I guess we follow them." I said starting to walk.

"Wait." Alice said stopping us as she raised my broken blade with her magic and concentrated trying to put it back together; she shut her eyes tightly trying to pour her magic into mending it but to no avail, "(Pant)…(Wheeze) Sorry…I can't fix it. I'm great with enchantments but when it comes to basic magic I fall pretty flat." Suddenly Sukia picked it up and wrapped the broken area in duct tape and handed it to me.

"Go ahead, you are a Royal knight after all, we can't send you off without your weapon." Sukia said as I put the sword in my coat.

"Thanks, I gotta go." As I left I bumped into Gareth stopping before I even began.

"You mean we gotta go!" He said with a determined look in his eyes.

"That's right!" Alice added in, "He took our Princess; I'm not going to let her get away with it!"

"I…I'm not going to let her go either!" Lily added trying to be brave.

"Guys I appreciate the support but I'm a knight, this is my duty." I said trying to stop them from putting themselves in danger.

"That doesn't stop us from coming along!" Alice said getting in my face, "And she hurt you, if you think we're going to let you go alone you've got another thing coming you idiot!" I felt myself start to laugh and she backed up, "What's so funny?"

"It's just…you're really worried about me aren't you?" She went wide eyed and looked away slightly embarrassed.

"I-Idiot, of course I'm worried…you're our friend now."

"She's right." Lily added, "So we're coming with you!" I felt a hoof over my shoulder and looked to see it was Gareth.

"You aren't getting out of this one, were sticking to you like glue." I looked over at Sukia who pointed over to the twins who were passed out.

"I'd love to join but I'd better keep an eye on those two; good luck though, I'm with you in spirit."

"Okay then, let's go!"

Alice, Gareth and Lily followed me as we headed to the library catching up with Twilight and the gang; we entered the building to see Pinkie with a book in her hoof.

"It was under E!" Pinkie said bouncing up and down as she handed Twilight the book; she put it down and flipped through page after page until she stopped on one and gave a cheerful look.

"Here it is, the Elements of Harmony." I looked over her shoulder to see five different gems each labeled with a different essence. The orange was honesty, the purple one was generosity, the blue one was laughter, the red one was loyalty and the pink one was kindness, "There is a sixth element but is currently unknown. Only when the five elements are present does the spark reveal the sixth element."

"Where were they last seen?" I asked as she closed the book.

"Apparently at the Castle of the Two Sisters." Twilight responded…Castle of the Two Sisters?

"Isn't that in the Everfree Forest?" I asked and she nodded.

"The Everfree Forest!?" Lily and Fluttershy said shivering, "Why there? Why the forest of evil?"

"Forest of evil?" I asked confused, the only thing I heard is that it was a peculiar forest with its own rules…nothing about it being evil.

"No pony lives there for a good reason." Alice began.

"There are creatures native to the forest that could be the end of any pony." Gareth added, "Timber wolves, Ursa, and Manticores to say the least. It's not the ideal place to live or even visit." So it's home to dangerous creature...only an idiot would go in there.

"Then it looks like that's where we're headed." I said with determination.

"Are you stupid!?" Alice said knocking me on the noggin with her hoof.

"It's the only way to defeat Nightmare Moon. We don't have much of a choice." I said rubbing my fresh bump.

"He's right, the only way were going to get to the Elements of Harmony is to go into the Everfree Forest." Twilight said agreeing with me, "So let's head out everypony!"

We were standing at the entrance to the Everfree forest as multiple creatures chirped and made other noises that just heightened the immense fear we were all feeling staring into the belly of a monster filled beast.

"Well we saw it let's go home." Fluttershy said turning around but Rainbow Dash grabbed her tail stopping her, "Right…" We all entered crossing the threshold of the border between normal and strange feeling a shift in the rules as we walked; when you looked at the forest you wouldn't find anything different but from the inside you could feel the difference. The air was very different from the air of Equestria, it wasn't clean and filled with a sense of prosperity and hope; rather the forest had a heavy air that gave you a feeling of tension and danger that kept you on your guard as you walked on the dirt path.

"Hold up everypony." Twilight said stopping us, "The path splits here." I looked to see she was right, one headed up the right while the other went up the left; if I had to guess I'd say they both headed to the castle of the two sisters but one could be faster than the other.

"We should split up here." I said taking to the head of the group, "One group will head to the left while the other will head right."

"All right then let's hurry, we don't have much time." Applejack said as she headed down the right path; the groups were split up with Alice, Gareth, Lily and I heading down the left path while the others headed down the right path.

"I wonder what type of power the elements have? If they can defeat Nightmare Moon than maybe they can make you stronger to." Gareth said as we walked.

"Doubt it, my guess is that the elements are a last ditch effort when nothing works." Alice said, "You ever heard of the term Deus Ex Machina? It's kind of like that in my mind."

"It could be both." Lily said trying to make middle ground, "But we better find it quick…I don't like the looks of those eyes in the shadows." I looked to the thickets to see red eyes looking at us with a menacing feeling running over me as we moved.

"Be careful everypony! Stay in a group and we'll all be fine." I pulled out my blade and kept my stance ready for battle; suddenly a group of timber wolves ambushed us surrounding us in one group, "Can you guys fight?"

"I'm strong enough to hold 'em back." Gareth said standing at my back.

"I don't think my magic can do anything to them." Alice said backing into us.

"I don't know any fighting moves." Lily said shivering as she was ready to take off.

"Lily, grab Alice and stay away from the timber wolves, we've got this!" I ordered and Lily picked up Alice flying into the sky as the timber wolves closed in on us; they clawed and swiped at us as we dodged and retaliated, I swung my sword knocking them around as Gareth bucked them backwards keeping them at a safe distance so we didn't end up overwhelmed…but something was wrong…they seemed to be dispersing from us for some reason. I looked around to see they were going after Lily and Alice; oh no! They snapped at Lily who was having trouble holding Alice and dodging the wolves; suddenly they snapped startling her and she dropped Alice in the center of a group of timber wolves. Jumping out of the group I rushed towards Alice only to be stopped by a wall of wolves; I didn't have time for this, I had to save my friend, "Don't worry Alice, you'll be alright!" She looked over at me worried and then gave me a smile.

"Okay Soren, I trust you." Good, now out of the way wolves, she needs me…what the heck? I looked down at my flank to see my cutie mark start to glow and suddenly a strange aura lifted from my body and flew at Alice enveloping her in its light. As I watched it felt like there was a strange hole in my memory as I looked at my wooden sword…I couldn't remember my training! My sword was enveloped in magic and flew at Alice who held it and began to fight back…she was using my skills and technique with every swing. It was as though she had absorbed my skills when she was wrapped in that aura that came off me; she still seemed to be struggling as they closed in, it was a group versus one after all…wait she could do something now!

"Alice, enchant the blade!" She looked over and gave me a quizzical look before she gave a look of realization and focused on the blade; as she focused fire began to dance on the blade scaring the timber wolves, those still brave enough to attack were hit and began to catch fire making them run to put out the fire. They soon ran away leaving our group unharmed and safe; with the danger past us the aura flew off Alice and returned to me, as it did I felt all my knowledge of my sword skills return to me in a quick flash of memories.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Alice, I didn't mean to drop you!" Lily said hastily apologizing to her.

"It's okay; I couldn't expect you to keep me safe on your own. After all, you were dodging wolves and holding me. If you hadn't dropped me you might have been hurt." Alice said assuring Lily.

"How did you do that?" Gareth asked amazed at what just happened.

"One minute I'm surrounded by timber wolves and the next my mind is flooded with knowledge of how to use a sword and after it was over it was gone." Alice said making crazy hoof gestures, "What was that magic?"

"I…I don't know." I answered honestly, "My cutie mark just lit up in an instance sending my skills to Alice and blanking my memory of those skills until they came back. It was like in that moment of worry I sent what I know to Alice to save her giving up my own skill in the process."

"So she borrowed your ability?" Lily said trying to explain what happened, "That's never happened before."

"I've never heard of any type of magic that can do that either." Alice said examining my cutie mark, "You're also a Pegasus making this an even stranger occurrence." She pushed at my flank making me jump back and laugh.

"Careful, I'm ticklish there." I said putting my coat back over my flank embarrassed, "Let's keep moving, we can discuss this later."

We moved further into the forest coming across a few obstacles until we came across a roaring river that seemed impossible to cross on foot; the current was unnaturally fierce with water whipping all over the place making anypony who got close soaked from head to toe.

"We'll just fly over then." Lily said grabbing Gareth and attempting to lift him off the ground with no luck, "Or…not."

"I'm just too big for you to lift Lily." Gareth said trying to cheer her up; I looked over the roaring river up and down looking for some sign of a bridge or lull in the waves with no luck.

"The only way is over from the looks of it." I said with a sigh.

"Why not try that ability from the timber wolf attack." Gareth said looking at me with a smile, "I could lift any of you with ease so it would work if you loaned me your wings Soren." That would work…hopefully I could control it. I closed my eyes and concentrated fiercely trying to force my wings to transfer over to Gareth…come on…I can do it…now! I fell to the ground as I felt exhausted trying to stretch the impossible, "A little trouble there?"

"I can't do it…I don't know why it worked last time."

"Oh well." Alice said, "Let's just look for a way around it." We started walking down the side of the river looking for a way across that wouldn't involve tumbling down the river at high speeds; why couldn't I use what I used during the timber wolf attack? It was like…I saw Alice in trouble and then it just happened…but why was I able to give my combat ability to her? As I thought deeply I heard a loud splash.

"AHHHH!" That was Lily's voice! I turned my head to see Lily start to tumble down the river as she flailed and yelled, "Help!" We started to run to catch her as she kept going down stream with the roaring tide.

"Soren, fly and get her!" Alice ordered as we ran; I stretched out my wings and…and…and, "Soren go!"

"I can't fly!"

"What!?"

"Fine then!" Gareth jumped into the river without hesitation and wrapped his hooves around Lily trying to get back to land.

"Gareth! We'll save you!" Alice said as she bent down to jump in.

"No, stop!" He yelled stopping us in our tracks, "Trust me, I've got this!" He kept trying to swim to the side and grab the land but kept getting sucked back in the center and hit with waves of water; he wasn't strong enough to beat the tides he had to get out soon or else, come on Gareth! My cutie mark flashed again and it happened again; as the aura from me enveloped him he flew out of the water on Pegasus wings and landed on our side. Once everyone was fully recovered Gareth and Lily carried us over to the other side and once Gareth landed the wings transferred back to me folding onto my side with ease.

"Glad that happened when it did." Lily said with a sigh.

"Yeah…but on another note." Alice began looking at me, "You can't fly?"

"But you're a Pegasus." Gareth said, "Flying is kind of your thing."

"Is there something about flying you don't like?" Lily asked hovering above me…this was going to be embarrassing.

"I…I…I-"

"Get on with it!" Alice yelled getting impatient.

"I'm afraid of height." I quickly said looking away embarrassed. Everypony was speechless as they took in what I said.

"You're afraid of heights?" Alice said trying to comprehend what I just said, "Pegasus ponies can't be afraid of height!"

"I have to agree with that." Gareth said nodding his head.

"Hey, you don't know what it's like for me. I look down and suddenly my vision spins and blurs and I lose control of my wings." I responded with a huff.

"Well everyone has their fears I guess." Lily said pulling out a book and writing something down, I looked over her shoulder to see my name and a column labeled fears with one after it, heights.

"You have a record on me?" I asked surprised.

"Yep, I have one on everyone I know, even Alice and Gareth." She said flipping through page after page till she showed me a page marked Alice; before I could read it Alice slammed the book shut and stuffed it back in Lily's satchel with enough force to knock Lily over.

"Let's just keep moving we still have a bit to go before we reach the castle." Alice said taking lead as we followed behind; looks like someone is embarrassed about their record…eh, give it time and I'll be the same.

Soon enough we came upon the Castle of the Two Sisters in the distance, the only thing between us was a rickety bridge that looked recently mended, someone must have been through here already…maybe it was the girls. As we crossed the bridge I suddenly heard cracking and snapping sounds and looked to see the bridge falling apart at the edges.

"Everyone hurry!" We started to rush across the bridge as it fell apart piece by piece; we dived at the edge and landed in the rough ground with relief, I looked back to see Lily was still in the center of the bridge shivering scared as the wood around her fell into the bottomless abys- okay stop looking down Soren, "Lily hurry, before that one breaks under you, fly across!" She opened her wings to take off but couldn't stop shivering making it impossible for her to fly.

"She's too afraid, she can't fly!" Alice said with worry drenching across her and Gareth's face, if I could fly to her this wouldn't be so hard but my courage was drained in the sky, any other time and I would be golden. As the wood under her broke apart slowly I felt my heart skip and do jumps with worry.

"Don't worry Lily, we'll figure something out." I yelled trying to calm her.

"I-I'm st-st-still scared…but I know you'll think of something…I trust you." As she said that the wood split in two and as she started to drop I felt my brain tell me to jump and save her but before I could even start my mark shinned again and another aura flew off me and the courage I felt in that moment seemed to disappear instantly as I backed up and curled into a ball feeling fear overwhelm me. As I sat there shivering Lily flew out of the canyon and landed on the ground with a glint of courage in her eyes that seemed familiar…it was my normal glint! Shinning Armor always said I had a certain shine in my eye that showed my courage and it looked like he always described it. As they all looked at me shivering and curled up I felt even more terrified; as the aura seeped back to me I felt my courage return and I stood up embarrassed at my fearful actions literally seconds ago.

"You know I've noticed something." Alice began, "Seems that power only activates during moment of danger. Very finicky on how it acts to."

"Yeah, first it took your sword training and then your wings and this time your courage." Gareth pointed out.

"It saved us all those time though." Lily said, "I'm thankful for it."

"True, we should get moving though, we're almost to the castle." I pointed over to the castle and we heard a loud stomping sound…something was happening in there!

We busted in to see the other group make their way up the tower stairs quickly, we followed behind ascending the tower stairs to the top to see Nightmare Moon and Twilight Sparkle facing off against each other. As we approached them Twilight began to speak triumphantly against Nightmare Moon.

"You may think you destroyed the Elements of Harmony but the real elements are right here!" As she said that the fragments left behind swirled around Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy taking the form of necklaces of their cutie marks, then another element surrounded Twilight taking the form of a crown, "The final element, the Element of Magic!" They all rose and shinned as a rainbow of magic swirled off of them and shot at Nightmare Moon consuming her.

"NOOOOOO!" When the light cleared…Nightmare Moon was still standing there!? We all looked confused, Nightmare included at what had just happened or in this case what didn't happen.

"Sorry but I can't let that happen." Where was that voice coming from!? We all looked around franticly and then back at Nightmare Moon noticing a strange figure of a pony form in front of her; as it formed it looked…like me!? Who was this, "I knew you would show up…you always seem to get in the way don't you four?" He looked at us and we were honestly confused; had we seen him before and the four of us? We only met a few hours ago, "Wait…this is it? Six Element bearers and four noponies? This makes my job a lot easier!" He morphed and formed again this time changing into a full alicorn before our eyes; he could do that!? He then shot a blast of energy at the four of us knocking us back.

"Come on girls, one more time!" Twilight said as they built up their blast again.

"Just a moment dear." The alicorn said and a blast of magic froze them and Nightmare Moon in place, "I want to deal with these four first." We stood back up and I looked him dead in the eye as he glared at us with a disturbing smile, "I don't like to take chances…especially with that one there." He pointed to me and I took a small step back as he shot another blast but Alice put up a small barrier that took most of the force of the blast. I looked behind to see Alice looking exhausted from that one spell.

"What do you know…I did a non-enchantment spell for once." As she said that she fell down exhausted.

"Alice!" As I said that he shot another blast, Gareth jumped in front of me taking the force and falling over, "Gareth!" As he shot another blast I jumped in front of Gareth and Lily picked me up trying to get me to dodge the blast; suddenly the shot split and hit both of us knocking Lily to the ground as I stood trying to stay strong, "Li…ly!" I staggered trying to stay up, "Why did you guys take those shots?"

"I…diot…your our friend." Alice said.

"We're not going to let you get hurt for us." Gareth added.

"Besides." Lily started, "We trust that you'll be able to stop him." They…trust me…like all those times before…that's it! I turned back to the alicorn with a look of determination in my eyes and he laughed.

"You really think you can beat me on your own?"

"No I don't because I'm not facing you on my own!" As a spoke my cutie mark gave off a blinding light that seemed to dazzle, "My friends trust me to take you out and I'm not going to let them down, and with that trust I can borrow their power and take you out!" I turned back to my friends, "Do you guys mind?" They all shook their heads and suddenly they all disappeared turning into a shimmering aura that was absorbed into me and I felt an overwhelming power change me. My legs extended, my wings grew and I gained a horn as well as every piece of knowledge and strength from my trusted friends. When the light went away I was a full grown alicorn and I could feel a burning in my heart, this was the strength and will to defeat this pony for my friends who gave me this strength!

"This got interesting, now show me what you've got, you will not defeat me!" I don't know who this was but he sure knew me but I wouldn't let him beat me no matter what! I shot a blast of magic at him which he retaliated with his own, they collided, exploding in a blast of magic; using the smoke to my advantage I pulled out my now steel blade and rushed him as he shot smaller blasts of magic at me. Gliding across the area I swerved to the left and right dodging each blast with ease as I came upon him, when I was close enough I thrusted striking him across the center and knocking him backwards, "So this is what the elements have done? Even when I think I have the upper hand they always have…the other!" He teleported in front of me and bucked me backwards, I put up a barrier in front of me blocking the buck but still sending me backwards.

"I don't know who you're talking about but you messed with those I care about and I won't let you hurt them, I'm going to protect those I care about and protect them with everything I've got!" With a scatter shot of magic I swarmed him as he panicked to block with no luck, every shot hit somewhere where he couldn't block; Alice's magic was actually pretty powerful, her enchantments must be top notch. He shot another blast at me and as I tried to dodge it seemed to home in on me and my brain clicked telling me to side step at the last second; as I did the blast hit the wall completely missing me; seems Lily's recorded memory goes through magic spells as well as pony profiles.

"Yet you seem ignorant to everything around you…you don't have the knowledge I possess!" He rushed me in an attempt to knock me over; I met his match and rushed at him as we knocked into each other battling for ground; I managed to push him back with ease shocking even him; looks like Gareth's strength was more than he could handle! With everything I had I pushed him back struck him with my sword and blasted him with powerful magic knocking him down; he tried getting up but was unable to even move, he had no strength left to fight, I…no, WE had won.

His spell broke as the others began to move around in confusion.

"Twilight, now!" She nodded and shot another blast at Nightmare Moon enveloping her in a rainbow of power that blinded me; when it died out everyone was back on the ground completely back to normal…except me, I was still an alicorn. I looked down to see the alicorn from before was gone, nothing was left of him leaving only the experience fresh in my mind; as I thought about it I felt my body morph and change as I shrunk back down to my size and my horn disappeared along with a chunk of knowledge in my brain. When it faded I looked around to see Alice, Gareth and Lily standing there looking confused; they were okay! With a sigh I grabbed them all into a hug, "Thanks for trusting me you guys, without that I would have never been able to do this."

"WE never would have been able to do this." Gareth said correcting me.

"Right, we."

"I'm not sure what it was that gave me the confidence to trust you." Alice said with a quizzical look on her face, "But something deep inside said that I should trust you."

"Same here."

"Me to." They all gave me a smile and I gave a big grin back.

"I guess that's just what helps us accomplish our goals."

"Yes it does." I looked behind me to see Celestia standing over us with a gentle smile on her face; everyone behind me bowed as I did the same, she had us rise and looked us all over, "Thanks to you four Twilight and the others were able to harness the Elements of Harmony and stop Nightmare Moon from imprisoning me in the moon, you have my thanks." She turned to the others who were all looking at us, "I knew Twilight would be able to stop Nightmare Moon with the help of her friends but something felt off in our world and I knew it would strike here, I sent you knowing that you could protect them and stop whatever force that would interfere with their power and you did."

"Not alone your majesty." I said motioning to my friends, "Because of them I was able to stop that force. Their trust in me gave me the strength to stop him."

"Of course it did, that's why I sent you with Twilight unaware of the force, I felt you would meet those who would help you in your hour of need and you did." She responded, "Through your bond you were able to come together as one powerful force that couldn't be stopped."

"Only because of your ability Soren." Alice said nudging me, "Without that we would have just been four ponies against an alicorn." I looked down at my cutie mark and looked back at Celestia.

"How come I was able to do that? What does it mean?"

"That's a question you're going to have to answer on your own." I t wasn't going to be an easy question to answer but I knew I could do it…but without them…I don't know if I can.

"Then I'd like to continue my training as a knight, with my friends at my side." As I looked back at my friends Lily looked touched to think I would stay, Gareth looked thrilled at the idea with a big smile plastered on his face and Alice looked away with a hint of pink in her cheeks.

"I-I don't mind if you stay." Alice responded making us all laugh.

"Then I hereby decree that Soren shall be stripped of his title of knight of Canterlot and be re-instated as knight of Equestria. No matter where you stay I will always consider you a knight of my kingdom." Celestia said with a proud look in her eyes.

"Thank you Princess." I responded. As I basked in this moment Pinkie jumped in my face with a smile on her face.

"You know what this calls for?"

We celebrated through the night as Pinkie set up a day long party with Celestia and the now freed from evil Princess Luna enjoying the festivities; with the good news train still chugging along we found out Twilight is also staying in Ponyville to continue her study in friendship meaning I either had to find a new place to stay or share a library with Twilight as a roommate…I definitely needed a new place. As I contemplated this Spike burped up a small scroll surprising not only Twilight but Celestia as well; when she opened up the scroll she giggled and handed it over to me, I examined it looking for a sign of whoever sent it…it was from Shining Armor!

Dear Soren,

I heard about the news that you're going to be staying in Ponyville to continue your training, while I'll miss having to you around to fall in the dirt when you train I understand why you want to stay in Ponyville. Make sure not to slack off, I'll know if you do. As you'll be staying there I'll go ahead and let you use the abandoned Ponyville guard house as your home, it may take a bit of work to fix up but I'm sure you can do it, after all you are my protégé. Be sure to send me an update on how you're doing every once in a while and stay out of too much trouble.

Your Mentor,

Shining Armor

P.S. Say hello to Twilie for me. Thanks!

Thanks Shining Armor, I'll take good care of it; I looked over a Twlight who was playing pin the tail on the pony and laughed at her brothers' nickname, Twilie.

"Soren!" I looked over to see Lily beckoning me over to the apple bobbing bucket; rushing over I bobbed in and grabbed a bright shining red apple, as I pulled back I heard metal stretch and looked under the apple to see a spring attached…uh oh. My face launched back into the bucket as the apple was pulled by the spring attached to the apple; I heard the familiar sound of children's giggle to see Denys and Penny behind the barrel laughing at their prank on me, I found myself laughing along with them as Pinkie and the rest joined in. This town sure was lively and I was glad to be a part of it; but that alicorn seems to know me…or someone with the same name and personality making me wonder who else was out there that was exactly like me.

"Getting lost in your head?" I looked to see Sukia talking to me, "You should enjoy the party, after all it's for you and Twilight." She leaned in and whispered in my ear, "Besides if Pinkie sees you looking glum then the party might last a few weeks."

"Really?" I asked surprised at the notion of a week-long party.

"Yep." Alice added in hearing the conversation, "One time we had a month long party when her sister Mod visited."

"It took a month for Mod to smile?"

"No." Lily said with a sigh.

"Mod doesn't smile." Gareth said, "She has a stone face and only after she told Pinkie did the party end…it was brutal." We all laughed after that enjoying the notion of a month long party as I enjoyed my first night in Ponyville and the many more days I would enjoy in this great town.


	3. Reconstruction

I gave a loud yawn as I woke up to a dark and crowded bedroom with the sound of Fluttershy singing to the animals outside, her voice was very soothing and had this energy that made you want to get up and get out for the day. I looked around my new room to see it covered in dust and different gear for training and patrols of the Everfree Forest; Shining Armor said I could use this as my house but it was crowded with different items and knick-knacks that had been used when this was a guard station for the Everfree Forest making the interior very dirty and small with how much was in here. After the party last week I headed straight for bed and didn't even notice the interior was so crowded until that morning; this was going to take some serious TLC to the max! Shining Armor sent me a few bits to fix up the place but I had to get a part time job just to get some extra cash; luckily I got a job as a mail pony alongside Ditzy Doo or Derpy by the towns' folk, which meant I was also finding the mail she lost on her route. With it I was able to make some grocery money and also purchase some essentials for my place such as a fridge and stove…and plumbing service…let's move on. I stepped outside checking on the exterior to see the grass around the place was almost a foot tall and weeds were sprouting all over the place; the wood on the house was splintered and falling apart while the paint was chipped and fading. Holes in the roof let sunlight into the house making the inside paint also faded and I could hear bats shrieking from the attic making me worried to head up there to check it out. As I began to worry about how long this would take I felt someone tap my shoulder and turned around to see Fluttershy and her bunny Angel.

"Hello new neighbor, how do you like your house?"

"It might take a little work." As I said that I heard a chunk of wood fall and watched as bats flew out the whole, "Or…a lot of work, but hey, that got rid of the bat problem." I said with a chuckle as she gave a worried look at my house.

"If you need help I'd be glad to lead you to the carpenters shop to pick up some supplies." Fluttershy offered.

"That would be great, thanks a lot." With a nod Fluttershy led me into town towards the carpentry shop; everypony was already up with some just opening their shops while others were getting their chores done for the day. We stopped at the entrance to the carpenter's shop and entered to see a pony working behind the counter with a hardy expression on his face.

"Welcome, what can I do for you two?" He asked.

"I'm fixing up my new place and I need a few two by fours to fix it up."

"Got it, yo Gareth, bring some two by fours over!" Gareth? After a few minutes Gareth came out of the back room carrying two by fours on his back.

"Hey Soren, Fluttershy, what are you doing here?" He asked setting the items on the counter.

"I'm fixing up my house and I need to replace so ceiling and walls. What are you doing here? I thought you worked at Sweet Apple Acres?"

"I'm a jack of all trades, when I'm not at the Apples orchard I'm working somewhere else in town. Now if that's the case you'll need some boards, shingles, beams and-"

"Hold it Gareth I can only afford the two by fours to secure the foundation, right now I just want to make sure a chunk of roof doesn't fall on me in the middle of the night." With that I pushed the extra content off and put the two by fours into my coat pocket with ease, "Do you guys sell paint though…and paint brushes?" He put some paint cans and brushes onto the table which I swiped into my coat putting money onto the tables in return, "Thanks see you later Gareth."

"I'll stop by later to check up on you." He replied heading back into the back room; we exited the shop and Angel kicked Fluttershy's leg and she pulled out a small basket.

"Sorry Soren but I've got some shopping to do for Angel, good luck."

"Thanks for the help Fluttershy, I'll see you later." With a wave we parted ways and when I looked back I saw Angel walk up to her with something golden in his hands; guess he found something cool.

I strolled over to one of the places I knew better than most of the town stopping at Carousel Boutique to pick up some curtains for my place; even if the windows were blocked off by junk I had to get some new ones…the bats shredded them to pieces. I walked in to see Alice reading a magic book intently as I walked in; she seemed completely absorbed in the book to the point she didn't even see me walking around her, I waved my hooves but she just looked down with a frown as she read her book.

"Hey Alice?" Nothing, "Alice." Still nothing, "Alice!" Seriously, "ALICE!" She jumped and threw the book in my face knocking me backwards; when I took the book off I looked at the cover and title, "Enchanting spells from A-Z." She pulled the book away and hit me in the head with it.

"Don't scare me like that!" She yelled looking flustered, "You gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry but you wouldn't pull your nose out of that book." I replied rubbing the bump on my head, "What's with the book anyway?"

"After seeing your coat I've been researching different enchantments and how to preform them." She gave a sigh looking at my coat, "However, no matter what book I find I can't find a heat regulation enchantment or pocket dimension for the life of me. Where did the Princess find those spells?"

"Canterlot library?"

"Of course, the one place I can't reach." Alice put the book aside and re-collected herself, "Anyway, are you here to invade my privacy or have you got business today?"

"I need curtains for my place, got anything in a color that works for a shabby house?" She gave me a quizzical look as I said that.

"You…can't be serious." She responded, "Look how about something that matches your style…black curtains?" She said pulling black curtains down with her magic.

"Perfect!" Swiping my coat over the curtains they disappeared leaving the amount I needed to pay in her magic.

"How long did that take to get." Alice asked snidely.

"…Four days." I admitted making her giggle and I chuckled lightly, "Thanks, I'll see you later."

"I'll come by after I'm done reading." Alice said settling back down to read.

"Later." I headed back out ready to pick up my last item that I needed.

I came upon the library to see it surrounded by a bunch of different ponies with Pinkie at the door waiting for…something; did everyone need a library book today? As I approached the door Pinkie turned around and gave me a wave before staring back at the door intently.

"Pinkie what are you doing?" I asked dreading the Pinkiesque answer I would receive; even being her a week I still got a sense of her wild antics through town.

"I'm waiting for Twilight to open the door so I can sing her a song." Normal enough answer considering…should I ask why?

"Nope, I'm going to avoid that right now." I said to myself entering the library to see Fluttershy cleaning while Twilight gave a groan of annoyance, she turned around to see me and seemed to cringe.

"Why are you here? Are you here for the same reason she is?"

"…Unless she's here for a book then no, do you have Wood Work for Beginners, Painting 101, Curtain Installation for Idiots and Bat Removal for the Frightened?"

"Oh good, I thought you were here for the Gala Ticket." She said with a sigh pulling the books off the shelves.

"Gala Ticket? You got invited to that? Cool." As the books came down I swiped my coat over them putting them away into the pocket; now I had everything I needed.

"Not as cool as you think, it hasn't been easy to choose who gets the second ticket and someponies are making it much harder to choose." She said glaring a Fluttershy.

"Ah, that's why Pinkie is outside."

"Pinkie Pie is outside!?"She said looking scared, she looked around franticly, "Where are the twins?" She was right, the twins usually hang to her coattail which means they were probably somewhere in the room now…plotting there next move against us…! As I opened the door to leave I felt something push against me sending me and Twilight outside where Pinkie began her song of want as Denys and Penny danced with her, "Why me?" Twilight put her head into her hooves in disbelief at Pinkies blatant attempt to get her extra ticket…I wonder. Swiping my coat over Twilight I watched as she disappeared into the pocket…hope she can breathe; everyone starred in disbelief as I put Spike on my back and we dashed off towards my house.

Stopping at my doorstep I shook my coat as everything dropped out one by one with Twilight dropping out last shaking her head at what just happened.

"Thanks for that." She said standing back up, "It's getting crazy with them all clamoring for the extra ticket."

"No problem at all, it can get crazy when you have finite resources."

"You've had that problem?"

"Ration training. Trust me a hungry guard is not something you want to see." We laughed as I sorted out the supplies I had to work with, "If you need to hide out then you're welcome here, just don't go into the attic…I saw some bats fly out but there could still be a few up there I don't know about." I said with a chuckle…her face had more worry then amusement though, "I think I'll deal with the bats first. If you're hungry there are fixing for daisy sandwiches in the makeshift kitchen!" Picking up the bat book I rushed inside and up to the attic as fast as I could; when I got inside I heard shrieking and saw some red eyes poking out through the darkness at me, "You don't scare me you rodents!" Loud shrieking accompanied my outburst…okay I'm slightly terrified.

A few hours passed and I tumbled down the attic stairs defeated as bats circled the attic room; closing the door quickly I felt the force as they tried to breach it and enter the house, not on my watch! Exhausted I went back down to the first floor to see Twilight organizing the living room for me.

"This house is a pigsty Soren, how have you dealt with this for a week?"

"I just needed a bedroom up until now; the biggest problem has been the bats and ceiling."

"What ceiling?" What did she mean by what ceiling? I bolted outside to see the ceiling had caved in completely leaving a giant hole where it was, at least by morning the bats would be gone…I hope.

"Woah!" I turned around to see Alice, Gareth, Lily and Sukia gawking at my house in surprise, "This house needs to be condemned and destroyed." Alice said in her honesty.

"It's my house."

"You'll make due." With a long sigh I slumped to the ground in defeat feeling my hope drain.

"This house has so many problems with it I can't even scrape the surface. The roof is non-existent now, the paint inside and out is chipped and cracked and the wood is the same, the foundation might just fall apart any second and to top it all off I've got the worst pack of bats as upstairs neighbors." I blurted out.

"Why didn't you say so?" Sukia said confidently; she began her song and I watched in amazement as the bats from my attic swarmed around her and sat listening to her song without even looking away from her.

"I'll be right back." Gareth said trotting away to do something, no idea what though; I turned back to the house to see Alice was painting the exterior with her magic as she held the paint can and use magic on the brush. Lily flew besides me and pulled out her record book flipping to a blank page labeling it, Soren's house (Ponyville); she really recorded everything down to the tiniest detail.

"I'll take a look at the interior structure and get a record of everything we need to fix for you." Lily said happily as she flew around the building and writing things down in her book; time to get the roof fixed! I grabbed the two by fours and headed to the attic working double time to secure the foundation to stop the bats from coming back in, pillar goes there, nail goes there, wood glue here, there; looking at the roof the foundation was set but without the boards or shingles the bats could still get back in. Suddenly a large piece of wood covered the hole making the attic too dark to see in, as I stumbled I fell backwards down the stairs and rushed outside to see what had happened; when I got outside I looked up at the ceiling to see Pent and Penny putting shingles down as they bungie jumped from the ground to the roof grabbing tiles on the ground and smacking them down on the ceiling as Gareth nailed them in one by one with one hammer swing. When Lily came out of the house she shoved the book in my face blinding me even to the letters she was trying to show me.

"The integrity is actually mostly intact, just applying some wood glue to these key pillars and you'll be golden, as will that wood after a good shinning." She was right, most of the inner problems were with the roof and the main floor and even second level was still good; just wax and buff the wood and this place would look brand new after a paint job…which is on its way. When the roof was done Gareth hopped down on a bungie ride as the twins slowly stopped the wire, Alice wiped her brow as she finished the painting job with plenty of paint splotches in her hair to show her hard work; Lily finished adding the final details of my house to her book and closed it with a satisfied smile as Sukia finished her song rubbing her throat.

"That much singing is kind of a strain on my throat. Got any water?" Sukia asked.

"You're in luck, they fixed the brown sludge so now I have clean water coming out of my faucet, it may be a bit messy but-" As we walked inside I was amazed to see that it was neatly cleaned up and perfectly arranged with everything in its place as Spike dusted off the area with a feather duster, "Wow! You arranged everything perfectly!"

"Well organization is my strong suit, consider it thanks for letting me hide out here and giving me something to eat, I've been trying to eat all day." She said rubbing her stomach.

"Yeah YOUR strong suit." Spike grumbled.

"She even revitalized the paintjob." Alice said rubbing the wall, "It's the same paint but newer looking.

"Simple spell to use."

"Well thanks a lot, everyone." I said turning to everyone, "This probably would have taken me a few weeks to do on my own but with everyone it was a lot easier and now I have an actual house to stay in. Speaking of what did you do with all of the gear that cluttered the place Twilight?"

"I put it in the shed out back, it really is a guard outpost here; there were training dummies back there…it least I think…the lawn is way too thick to get a beat on anything back there."

"Well I can take care of that, how much do I owe you for the roof supplies you used and labor Gareth?"

"On the house man, I can't have my friend living in a dump after all." Gareth replied.

"The paint job was offensive to look at so I thought I'd fix it." Alice said with a sly smile.

"My record book is another page more complete." Lily said fluttering happily.

"Those bats really know how to show appreciation." Sukia said touching the rose in her hair; must be from the bats, little jerks! I looked behind her to see the twins snickering behind her happily.

"Speaking of help, how did you get those two to help out?" I asked pointing to Denys and Penny who looked away shyly.

"They're really quite sweet children; you're just too much fun for them to prank." Sukia said nuzzling them affectionately, they broke away and walked up to me and whispered to each other before Denys put his hoof up to shake mine; fine, they are kind of cute, I reached out and shook back but as I touched the hoof I felt a jolt of electricity go through me and when it stopped I looked to see he had an electric joy buzzer on his hoof. With a roar of laughter he and Penny ran off outside to wherever they would commit their next prank; I rolled my eyes as Alice helped me up with a laugh.

"You've really got to see their pranks coming."

"They're good…and being trained by Pinkie Pie…my life of pranks won't end will it?"

"Probably not." Gareth said laughing and we all joined in. Suddenly a knock at the door caught my attention, when I looked over there was Ditzy with a letter in her hand.

"You got a letter Soren! Special delivery!"

"Great…where is it?" She looked around before looking down sadly, "You dropped it, didn't you?" She nodded her head shyly and I sighed, "Come one, let's retrace your steps." As she started to take off I grounded her, "Walking of course." With a big smile she bounced away with me following; eventually we came across the letter…in Twilight's mail at the library.

"I don't want to know who is in there." Twilight said with a groan, "But your letter is in there."

"I don't need it know if it will upset you Twilight, your my friend so if you don't want to I won't force you." As I said that I saw her eyes light up with an idea.

"That's it! Thanks Soren!" She busted inside as we followed and sure enough AJ, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Pinkie were in all asleep; must have passed out waiting for Twilight, "Girls?" With one word they all woke up and looked at Twiligt waiting for her next words, "I've decided that no one gets the ticket, not even me. Spike, take a letter." Spike pulled out a quill and parchment ready for her next word, "Dear Princess Celestia, I'm returning the Gala tickets; I don't want to go if not all my friends can go so therefore I can't go either, thank you for the offer but I must refuse. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." With that Spike sent the letter to Celestia via dragon mail as we all sat there appreciating the gesture that was made by Twilight; I searched through Twilight's mail until I came upon a letter addressed to me from…Princess Celestia? Suddenly Spike burped up a parchment and read it aloud to the group. h

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, Why didn't you say so, here are tickets for you and all of your friends. Sincerely, Princess Celestia." With that he handed a ticket to each of the six and they all cheered happy to be attending the biggest event of the year.

"What was that about the Gala?" Sukia asked unsure of the whole situation that just happened.

"Beats me?" I replied opening the letter, "Dear Soren, I would like to invite you and your friends to the Grand Galloping Gala as my honored guests, I hope to see you there." Inside the envelope five tickets fell out and I saw Sukia, Alice and Lily's eyes go wide with amazement as Gareth seemed unfazed; I knew how he felt, "Yes, you're all invited." With that they shrieked and swiped up a ticket with giddiness in their steps; I handed Gareth his as he shrugged and I looked at my ticket slightly excited. After all it's not every day you're invited to the biggest social event of the year…guess I can get a little excited, "YAHOOO!" …maybe a bit too excited, hehehe.


	4. Brains over magic

"Heat protection? No. Rain Proof? No. Oh, I've got it! Size adjustment enchantment, perfect reduces need for multiple sizes, one size fits all." I was working on my latest line of heavy duty clothes for the apple family, their normal clothes had gotten a bit ragged so they put in an order with me for new farm work clothes but it wasn't just orchard family orders…it was the entire family! Luckily they were the same style for every one so the only issue was size adjustment…but now with the Size Adjustment enchantment it would be one size fits all and makes my job a lot easier…that would be a lot of orders to take from a LOT of Apples. As I thought out the perfect size to fit the biggest apple member I heard the door open and turned my head to see Lily entering the shop.

"Hey Lily, what can I do for you?" I asked setting aside my plans for the Apple family work clothes.

"I just need some patch work on my ribbon if you could Alice." Lily said handing me her trademark ribbon, it was starting to fray and break apart in some places which meant that it needed its usual repair it got every few months…but there were some holes that seemed weird.

"What was this from?" I asked pointing out the holes.

"Well, when I went to visit Soren he was practicing some new sword moves and he kind of lost grip and it got sent flying…into my bow, hahaha." Lily said shyly; Soren really needs to get better at holding his blade, I know he has past training but I almost lost my ponytail because of him! I worked my needle with ease as I patched up the holes and kept the edges from taking the whole ribbon apart; working a little magic I added a bounce back enchantment to keep another sword from taking this thing apart and hopefully send Soren's medicine back at him, "I don't think I can pay you for the enchantment."

"That's okay; Soren will pay for it sooner or later." I said putting her mind at ease.

"Well thank you, how is the Apple order coming along?"

"Great! I've already know how to fit every Apple member now I just have to get specs on the biggest Apple member. As good as the size adjustment enchantment works if it can't fit the biggest pony then it can't adjust to their size." I levitated the sewing machine to me as well as the needed fabric and set both to my work station before getting up and heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked.

"I have to see Granny Smith at the Orchard, since she's the oldest Apple family member I can find out which member is the largest member and use that as my model." I answered grabbing a quill and clipboard.

"Don't think I have them?" Lily said holding up her book.

"Do you?"

"…No." She said giggling embarrassed, "I suppose my record is a bit lacking. Maybe I'll come with you."

"Hey Lily! We've got clouds to bust!" Rainbow yelled from the sky.

"Maybe next time." I said shooing her off to do her work.

"See you next time Alice!" With that Lily took off after Dash to do her job for the day; I'd probably see her later, time for me to do my job.

As I approached the apple orchard I watched as Derpy flew over me and crashed into the barn making a large hole; the next second Soren glided over me brushing my hair with his back hoof startling me; he really needs to learn how to fly!

"Ditzy! Are you okay?" He yelled as she fell backwards onto his back.

"Where'd you go Soren?" She said confused and obviously unaware of whom she landed on, as he groaned she looked down and gave a big smile, "There you are!"

"Yeah, anyway do you have the mail?" She gave a shrug to his question and I felt something on my back and turned to see a letter had fallen on it, when we looked up mail was falling from the sky slowly; looks like Derpys' bag has another hole in it, "Come on, let's get it before it falls in a river." As Derpy swooped trying to grab letters Soren double jumped and glided grabbing about three or four letters every time; he's good at that double jump though. Letting them get to their work I entered the house to see Granny Smith sitting in her rocking chair looking through old albums; perfect opportunity.

"Excuse me Granny Smith." She rose from her book and gave me an aged smile.

"Hello there dearie, what can I do for you?" She answered waving me over.

"I was wondering who the largest member in your family is?" As I said that she pulled me over and pulled open an enormous family album flipping through page after page.

"Well if were talking biggest member that would be Orchard Picker, standing at twelve feet tall, he always got the apples down by knocking the tree on top." This pony doesn't even fit in the picture, "Largest in weight would be Jam breath with a weight of over two hundred; he had a name before that but after the hundredth jar of jam every time he talked all we could smell was the jam on his breath. Now we just roll him into trees to shake apples loose, gotta be careful though, one wrong drop and the entire orchard will fall." He looks like a big bowling ball.

"Thanks Granny Smith. Both are actually very helpful, it makes it easier for me to work…it might take more material then I thought though." I quickly jotted down the width and height onto my clipboard and had a thought to myself…what fabric would work best for farm work? After leaving the house I looked around and saw Big Mac working on nearby fields, guess I'll ask him first; I walked up to see Big Mac was bucking apples out of a tree but something was stuck in the tree along with it. Taking a closer look I noticed it was a letter left behind by Soren and Derpy; I pulled it out with my magic to see it wasn't a letter addressed to the Apples so I put it into my satchel and pulled my clipboard back out.

"Excuse me but what fabric would you prefer your work clothes be made of." He turned to me and scratched his head in thought, "Is denim good?"

"Yep."

"Thanks. That's very helpful." With that written down I had him point me to the south field where Applejack was and headed over hastily; the sooner I get her input the sooner I can get to work, after all, hard work promotes forward thinking. As soon as I entered the south orchard I could hear Applejack talking.

"How in tarnation did you get stuck in the leaves Derpy?" I walked over the hill to see Applejack and Gareth looking at Derpy who was upside down in the branches of an apple tree.

"I was collecting letters when one floated over here and then there were branches everywhere." Derpy answered as she flailed in the branches.

"Need some help?" I asked as I walked over to the situation.

"Depends, can you dislodge her from the branches without breaking them?" Gareth asked as he looked at the stuck mail pony.

"Well…she's really splayed out up there isn't she?" Her limbs were all weaved through different branches making this even more confusing.

"Usually Soren is able to lead her out of this but he had to take off to deliver the mail on time." Applejack said scratching her head, "Without him I don't know if we can pull her out."

"Then I'll go get Soren." I said with a sigh, before Soren came along she would always take out three different trees whenever she visited the orchard, now we have longer living trees and avoiding any more dying would be great…oh I almost forgot! I dashed back and pulled out my clip board, "AJ what fabric do you prefer on your clothes?"

"Burlap, it last long and can take a beating."

"Thanks. Don't move till I get back Derpy!" As I walked away I heard Derpys' voice holler at me.

"Okay Alice, I won't move at all!"

Quickly searching the town I couldn't find hide or hair of Soren no matter where I went, he seemed to be missing; the one time I needed to find him and he's nowhere to be found! As I trotted down the street the houses seemed desolate of people, even the vendors stands were empty; was it everypony's day off? As I thought I heard the sound of fireworks going off; sounds like they're coming from the square, better rush off to see what the commotion is. As I approached the square I noticed a large group surrounding a stage with a pony on top of it pulling off different show magic spells; she looks slightly familiar…where have I seen her before?

"Gaze in awe at the great and powerful Trixie!" …TRIXIE! I pushed through the crowd to see the pony in question wearing the custom unicorn cloak I had designed for a unicorn named Trixie; since I mailed it all I've heard is the infamy and scorn she attained from town to town and that means my cloak had become infamous because of her! She stood there on the center stage boasting of her talents and magic as everypony watched in awe as I gave a glare hoping she would catch on fire with all of those fireworks going off; this girl would pay! As I sat there watching her showboat I turned to see AJ and Rainbow scoffing at her gloating; as least they saw the fraud behind her like I did, "Does anypony think they can match the great and powerful Trixie? Come up and challenge me if you dare!" Before I could storm up there I felt somepony bump into me and turned to see Sukia standing there.

"Sorry Alice, I was trying to get to the front and ended up tripping." She replied with a giggle.

"It's okay, what's with Trixie? She's snobbish and a showoff nd everyone is eating it up!"

"Small grudge dear?"

"A little…she brought my credibility down."

"She did?" We both turned around to see Soren standing there enjoying a cotton candy stick looking oblivious to the situation.

"Why do you have cotton candy?"

"Pinkie is selling it around the group; she makes really good cotton candy." He replied chomping a gob of the puff happily, "So how did she ruin your credibility?"

"I was a rising talent, I not only had the eye for proper outerwear but my enchantments were great for each individual outfit. Then my newest line of clothing came out, the earth pony overalls, the Pegasus sky uniform and the unicorn cloak all very useful for their respective ponies.

"I saw those the first day here, they looked great."

"They didn't just look good; they had top notch enchantments on them. The earth pony overalls had a fatigue enchantment that made it easier for ponies who wore it to work for longer; the Pegasus sky uniform had a natural repellent that kept birds from crashing into you without knowing there was a pony there so it didn't interfere with their formation. But the unicorn cloak was my crowning jewel, it was fashionable, covering and had a magic compressor enchantment that was a pocket for magic energy; as long as you kept pouring magic into it the compressor would act as an emergency pocket of magic which you could use for big spells or when you run out of magic energy, it even had a pocket dimension that could hold an infinite amount of items!"

"Like mine?"

"No, sadly it still weighed you down but only the weight would affect you while the size didn't matter, it was my greatest work…but then she came along." I shot a glare at Trixie who was currently humiliating Dash, "She was my first customer who bought the unicorn cloak…and my last. She ordered a custom cloak with star patterns on it, she paid extra for custom but had I known what would happen I would have charged her enough to stop her from starting her showboating business."

"Besides the star pattern that is definitely your design." Soren said squinting at Trixie's cloak as she turned Rarity's hair green…that's just…unpleasant.

"What you saw is what every customer saw when I showed them the cloak, no one wanted to be associated with Trixie so I wasn't able to sell another cloak; to have my cloak associated with Trixie makes even me want to disown it." I gave a sigh thinking of the business I missed out on because of her.

"Is that all you've got? Can no one match me?"

"I'll give it a shot!" We turned our heads to see Soren had jumped up on the stage, "You may be able to do a lot with your magic but can your magic do this?" Pulling out his practice sword from his cloak he started doing fancy maneuvers and tricks with the blade like a sword dancer in a traveling circus, topping it off he jumped up and flapped three times; he threw the sword up and pulled out a blank sheet of paper and as the sword dropped down he grabbed it and sliced along the paper quickly. When he dropped down the paper fell apart revealing he had made a paper Pegasus, unicorn and earth pony all connected together by the hooves; we all gave respective cheer to his talent…myself included.

"Well let's see if you can handle this." Her horned glowed as the paper figures grew in size and surrounded Soren.

"You wouldn't hurt me, right guys?" They jumped him and in a dust storm of paper fists he was thrown off the stage into the crowd with a crash, "Apparently our relationship is paper thin." Trixie laughed at her victory as Soren got back up on his hooves.

"Only magic can counter magic." Sukia said starting to walk up before I stopped her; as good as that sounds it won't work here.

"Your logic is sound but that means she can counter your spells as well." I said thinking of how to beat her…I need something that can stop her spells…but what? Maybe the library can help me find what I need.

Abandoning the show I headed to the library where Twilight was currently studying another book in her free time.

"I'm telling you Twilight you can wipe the floor with Trixie." Spike said trying to convince Twilight of…something.

"I'm not going to be a show off Spike, my friends don't like it and I'd rather not upset them." Twilight responded and she levitated a stack of books to her side, "Besides I'd rather spend time studying than showing off." I knocked on the side of the wall to get her attention making her drop her book in surprise, "Oh hello Alice, what brings you here?"

"I was wondering if you had any enchantments that block magic." I asked as she reorganized her pile.

"Nothing that deflects spells but I do have a spell nullifier." She answered pulling out a book and setting it on the pedestal to a certain page; the page described the proper way to set a spell nullifying enchantment but it had some drawbacks. It took a lot of magic energy and the person who wore the item enchanted was not only was protected by spells but couldn't preform spells while wearing it, in a battle of magic it would end up just waiting for the caster to run out of juice…maybe that would work and that to!

"I can actually use this! Thanks Twilight I'll return the book when I'm done." Slipping the book into my bag I left the library and rushed back to Carousel Boutique ready to add some additions to my unicorn cloak, for the last time unfortunately.

Soren

I watched Trixie make a mockery of all my friends from Gareth to Pinkie in an instant as her magic confounded them and sent their skills back at them with ease, seriously any magic battle was wrought with her counter spells knocking us down, so far the only ponies who haven't gone up against her are Alice and Twilight. Even Sukia tried but Trixie put a muzzle on her stopping her from singing her beautiful song; Gareth lifted over twenty stacks of hay with one hoof but she added an anvil on top and he toppled over when the anvil went through every bail and hit his hoof full force. Even Lily challenged her with a test of her recording skills jotting down everything about Trixie she got in under five minutes and over a page long but she retaliated by burning the page and leaving the words 'great' and 'powerful' burned into the next page; looking back at Lily she looked like she was about to burst into tears, her record of Trixie had been burned away after all. She really had us all trumped on how to beat her, no matter what we did she had a counter spell and it was starting to piss me off!

"Hey Trixie!" We all turned to see Alice with a determined expression on her face and she wore one of her unicorn cloaks, what was she planning? She approached the stage and walked up staring Trixie directly in the eye.

"You want to lose to me as well? Fine then, give me your best shot." She said cockily beckoning her to do something.

"After you." She replied shocking all of us; Trixie laughed loudly before looking her over and lighting her horn up.

"Let's see how you fare without that cloak!" She shot a fire spell at her that engulfed Alice; I've got to save her! I skid to a halt as Alice brushed off the fire on her cloak with ease, "How did you-"

"Guess it's my turn then? Hey Soren?" She turned to me and beckoned me up on stage, why did she need me, "I need everything in your coat."

"Everything?"

"Everything. Don't leave out anything." I quickly pulled item after item out of my coat as she picked them up and put them in her cloak and after a while I watched as she struggled to stand up with everything weighing her down…her body couldn't handle the weight of everything I had, "Why…do you have…so much in…your coat?" She asked through deep breaths.

"Sometimes I forget what I put in there, even I don't know why I have so many planks of wood in there…must have been left over from rebuilding the shed."

"So you put them back in your coat?"

"No…they never came out when I shook everything loose." I answered honestly making her jaw hang in disbelief.

"Doesn't matter, I think I've got what I need." She looked over at Trixie and I turned my head to see Trixie flailing on the ground.

"What did you do?"

"I made the pocket dimension enchantment link up with every cloak I made, it's now a shared storage and that storage is too heavy for her to carry." She replied trying to unclip the cloak.

"Get this cloak off me! I can't stand up!" Trixie said unable to move at all, "Snips, Snails!" The two colts quickly moved to her side and unclipped the coat as it clunked to the ground too heavy to lift.

"Soren, get the cloak!"

"What? Oh, right!" I rushed forward and swiped my coat over it moving it into my weightless storage, "Finally, my credibility can make a comeback…now please empty the storage before it crushes me." Moving to her side Sukia and I started unloading everything in her cloak as she started to stand up feeling the weight gone from her body, "I think we got everything." She quickly reached into my coat pocket and pulled out Trixie's cloak giving a relieved sigh, "That was amazing Alice, how did you survive the fire?"

"I made the cloak I'm wearing magic nullifying so any spell she threw at me would fizzle and die without affecting me. I couldn't use any spells while wearing it but that's why I made it shared storage, I beat her with my brain rather than my skill." She replied, "Now I'm going to destroy this cloak and every unicorn cloak I ever made."

"What!?" Sukia and I said in unison, "But why?"

"Every unicorn cloak I make will be connected by this spell making it one big shared storage; no one is going to buy a cloak weighed down from other customers." With that she put the cloak in her cloak and walked off; It's too bad she has to get rid of the cloaks they were actually pretty cool, magical armies would have loved to use them…that's it!

Alice

It took a few hours but I managed to gather up every unicorn cloak I ever made and put them into a pile…time for the cut off, literally. I grabbed a pair of scissors and picked up the first cloak…Trixie's coat…the start of all this; guess this is it, as I put the scissors over the cloak the door slammed open.

"Gah!" I dropped the scissors and cloak and turned to see Soren and the gang standing at the door, "Have you lost your mind!?" I got up in Soren's face angry at his sudden appearance.

"Don't destroy your cloaks!" He said hastily.

"Why, I told you I can't sell them." He shoved a letter in my face from the castle guards.

"I told the royal guards about your cloaks and they want to use them for training cadets!" Reading over the letter he was right; the training program wanted them to learn the importance of sharing supplies and weight as a unit, with my cloaks they can do just that and it teaches unicorns not to rely on their magic in combat, "They want a full order of your cloaks and they're willing to pay double for them!"

"It wasn't easy but I made your cloaks sound appealing." Sukia said.

"I listed all the uses for it." Lily shyly said raising her hoof.

"And I…didn't do much; I can recommend some good fabric to make it out of." Gareth said with a grin; these guys are awesome!

"Thanks everyone, this means a lot to me." I responded giving all of them a big hug, "I didn't want to lose my best work, but I couldn't let her ruin my cape without ruining it myself."

"She couldn't ruin your cape." Soren said, "The only person who can make you feel your cape is ruined is you. Honestly I think they were really cool, I didn't want to see them go away so I had to do something for you." He spoke so honestly and sincerely…it kind of made me blush, "There's no way I'm letting my friend give something up she really cares about."

"Well…thanks a lot Soren…and everyone, now my cloak has some use. There's still one thing though." I turned my attention back to Trixie's cloak and picked up the scissors.

"You're still going to destroy it?" Soren asked.

"I still have to get rid of this one; Trixie still leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I say her name and this will feel too good to pass up." Picking up a few more scissors I handed a pair to everyone, "Care to join?" With a nod we all took apart the cloak piece by piece leaving it in small clips of fabric which I put into the trash with glee, I was really lucky to have all these friends, this wouldn't have felt right without their help. Now my cloak has a better use than a showboats accessory; and it was all thanks to Sukia, Lily, Gareth and Soren…I feel like I'm forgetting something though.

"Hey has anyone seen Ditzy at all, I haven't seen her since Sweet Apple Orchards." Oh no, that's right!

Meanwhile

Ditzy sat in the tree still tangled as the owls hooted in the night; somehow she had ended up more tangled than before.

"Alice will come back, she told me to wait and I will wait as long as I have to! I just have to wait!"


	5. Sleepover

Height is about twenty feet and branches extend to about seven feet; (Snap!) make that three inches.

"Lily, come help us with this one." Alice asked pulling at a large branch with her magic, "We need to get these branches down before the storm hits." I quickly jotted down the last details and closed the book putting it back in my satchel and rushing over to help, "I don't see why you have to do your recording now. The record won't last once the trees are destroyed by the storm."

"I still want to get a record of how big it got before it was destroyed." I replied as Applejack roped the tree branch and we pulled with all our strength bringing the large tree branch crashing to the ground as I jumped back.

"Grow a spine Lily; we still have a few more to take down." Alice said heading for the next tree; she's always been very blunt when it came to important business and it was always apparent with the insults she launched at people, I could have stayed home but they needed every pony they could get to bring the tree branches down; even Fluttershy was helping out…bringing down twigs but still helping out. The only problem was that I was working with a pony who wanted to get this done as quick as possible; in this weather there was so much data to catalog that I couldn't ever before, the strength of the wind that could break the branches off, the strength and durability of the leaves that stayed on without fluttering off; so much data on durability could be recorded and it made me giddy! (Snap!) At least I would be able to if SOMEONE wouldn't keep breaking them apart, "Come on, we have to finish this up quickly or else things could go wrong."

"But there is so much to be gained from them; I have to get down what I can."

"Lily, your record isn't going to help so just shut the book and help me out."

"Excuse me!?" No one insults my records, "My records are important, you can't just push them aside like they don't matter."

"Lily, I didn't want to be the one to say this but your records are totally pointless I have yet to see a scenario in which they help out in a dangerous situation. All I've seen is you with a bulky useless book." I may be spineless but I don't back down when someone insults my passion!

"You think that finishing up quickly is more important, for your information I have a record of each tree you hit and you missed some crucial branches in the back because you were so focused on finishing up quickly. You're sloppy and move without thinking and that can hurt in the long run." She recoiled as I said that throwing her off.

"That's right; I want to finish up quickly because I have things to do while you could just sit here and scribble in your book for hours as the storm blows you away." As we bickered thunder roared loudly making both of us duck under the nearby bench as the rain poured down, "Still no spine?"

"You're under here to." We sat there as the rain poured down for a few minutes; we just gave each other glares as we waited for it to end…who were we kidding, this wasn't going to end for at least the rest of the day. I looked back at Alice to see she was just lying there with a bored look on her face…how could she say that about my record books!? She knows how important they are to me and she just completely blindsided me with her insult…and it was completely uncalled for.

Thirty minutes had passed as we sat there and the mud under our hooves was congealing and covering our hooves; if we stayed here anymore than we would turn into mud ponies…I wouldn't mind if that happened to Alice but I'd rather not end up like that.

"Are you four okay?" We looked up to see Twilight shouting from her doorstep at us…what did she mean by the four of us; I looked out to see Rarity and Applejack under the other bench stuck in the same predicament as we were…only I'm guessing they didn't hate the pony they were next to.

"We kind of got stuck out here when the storm kicked up." I explained.

"Well you guys shouldn't be out there, come stay at the library until the storm ends. All of you, I wouldn't want any of my friends to be stuck in this." Twilight said beckoning us over to her place; we all rushed to her library wanting to get out of the rain as quickly as possible.

"Thanks for the help Twilight." Alice said shaking her mane dry, "I definitely didn't want to be stuck under that bench for too much longer." With a final shake her ponytail hit me in the face as she walked inside shaking the mud off her hooves; she meant to hit me with her ponytail.

"I'm much obliged Twilight." Applejack said as she stepped in; before she could get in thought Rarity stopped her pointing to her hooves and then to the hose.

"Wash up before you come in dear." Rarity said passive aggressively at Applejack; maybe I was wrong about my last statement about these two. We all converged inside in a circle as Twilight bounced happily up and down freaking all of us out to a different degree; I was slightly terrified personally.

"The storm won't pass till tomorrow which means we can have my very first sleepover!" That was why she was excited? I guess a pony's first sleepover is a big deal…especially at this age, "I've got just the book for this!" She pulled a book off the shelf with her magic; it was called 'slumber 101' and had two pillows overlapping on the cover; it got the message across at least, "We're all going to have so much fun!" She giggled happily at the idea as she bounced around; this would have been fun if Alice wasn't here, all she's going to do is put a damper on the whole experience with her brutish comments and uppity attitude. Rarity caught our attention with a dainty throat clearing sound and we all turned to her.

"I think I know just how to start things off."

Alice

We all sat down as Rarity smeared our faces with her rejuvenating cream and stuck small cucumbers on to top it off; I knew Rarity carried this stuff in case of emergencies but I never thought she would ever actually use it. Pulling one of the cucumbers up I looked over to see Lily was writing in her book on Rarity's page; again with the book, I never understood why she did that stuff, she kept changing an entry every single day, there was no way she was going to have a perfect recording of every single piece of info on every pony she knew. Knowing her she would be wrong anyway, calling me sloppy and thinking I only care about finishing up quickly…she should add snobbish and mean to her personal record. If I could I would…calm down Alice, this is Twilight's first slumber party, can't ruin it; putting the cucumber back on I drifted back to my own thought enjoying the bliss of not thinking and just focusing on relaxing. Eventually we got to the mane curling and I politely declined not wanting anypony to touch my hair or dislodge my ponytail style…no luck with Rarity at the helm; she pushed the rollers in and I felt as my mane pull at my head instead of naturally fall around my face.

"Rarity…"

"Alice dear you have to get use to this eventually, I will not let my assistant in fashion go in such a fashion. After all, the colts won't look at you unless you look your best."

"That's good because I don't want a colt." Shaking the rolls loose I put my ponytail back up and gave a relieved sigh as Rarity gave me a glare and then focused on Applejack pulling hers tighter than she did with me; they were obviously having a feud with how they seemed to act to each other. Is today just made for arguments because if there was going to be a winner it was going to be me; I am not sloppy and I don't rush in without looking at the situation!

"Make over. Check!" As Twilight checked off in her book she made everyone's curls disappear in an instant leaving everyone's manes in their usual styles; as she looked through the book Applejack shook her head obviously trying to untidy her mane even though it was back in its normal style, "Next is ghost stories. Anyone got one?"

"I've got one." I said with a doosie of a story in my mind, "This is the story of the poor pony who was too absorbed in writing in her silly book that she didn't see the ghost that possessed her and tore the very book to shreds." I looked over to see Lily have a horrified look on her face that then changed to an annoyed expression; guess I struck a nerve, good!

"How about this?" Lily said with a smug grin; what was she cooking up, "This is the story of the hasty mare who moved to quickly and didn't take her time with any small tasks that when she finished burying her last grave she didn't bury them enough and the pony came out of their grave and hunted them down to pay for their hasty nature but instead of attacking them they went for their clothes line and destroyed every piece with no hope of recovery." NO! Not my clothes! Oooohhh she was going to pay! After two more passive-aggressive stories from the other two Twilight decided we should move on to truth or dare; perfect, "I dare Alice to stack ten books but only put the last book on ten minutes after the ninth one."

"Ha! Easy." I quickly stacked the books on top of each other and once the ninth one was on I sat down looking at the waving tower of books as it leaned from side to side; I tapped impatiently looking at the clock and back at the stack waiting for the five minutes to pass. I looked over to see Lily snickering at me; this was the most coy I've seen her ever and I didn't like it at all! As the clock ticked to the fourth minute the stack toppled on top of me; I pushed them off and looked to see Lily snickering harder trying to hide it, no way is she getting off free, "I dare Lily to not write down a new observation of a pony for ten full minutes." She jumped at my dare and sighed looking back up with a confident look.

"Fine." As she said that I could see the sweat pouring from her face as her eyes darted obviously taking in new information…that she couldn't put down in her book; hehehehe!

"Let's move on to the next one." Twilight said feeling the tension in the room from both me and Lily and Rarity and Applejack; it was a bit obvious I guess, "Something called a…pillow fight?" That's my cue; picking up a pillow I tossed it at Lily who fell over, I looked to see Applejack had hit Rarity causing her to go into her angry look.

"It is on!" Rarity and I tossed pillows at Lily and AJ with haste as Twilight stood to the side; it was a heated battle with us catching the pillows with our magic and throwing them back with ease. They eventually got smart enough to throw a second pillow as we caught the first making the fight a little more hectic...well only one thing to do. I picked up every pillow and tossed them as quick I could as she took two to the face and then ducked down pulling her book open.

"Now's not the time to lose focus Lily!" I lobbed one that landed on her head and felt a feeling of satisfaction as another pillow collided with my face knocking me over; I looked to see AJ had thrown it at me in my moment of haste to hit Lily. Suddenly the pillows stopped as Twilight intervened.

"Maybe we should just go to bed." She said giving a long sigh as she closed her 'slumber 101' book; I still didn't understand why she had a personal copy, crazy mare.

Twilight laid out the extra beds she had and Lily and I had to share a bed making the experience even more tense; I looked over to see Lily reading her book intently as she lied next to me.

"Do you have to read that now?" I whispered angrily.

"I'm reading all the new things I recorded, maybe if you looked back on what you did you could get better instead of just blindly rushing in to the same situation the same way." As we argued I could hear another argument take place on the upper floor in Twilight's area.

"I would but I don't want to lug around a useless book all day!"

"It's not useless!"

"Enough!" We all stopped as Twilight's voice broke through our various arguments stopping all of us, "A slumber party is supposed to be fun but thanks to you four I can't check that off!"

"I was trying to have fun but she made it impossible!" I said pointing at Lily.

"Me? It's been you who's been making it impossible!" She said pointing at me.

"I blame Applejack!" Rarity said turning up her nose.

"It's been Rarity the whole time!" AJ said glaring at Rarity.

"Well guess what? All of you have been unpleasant!" Twilight said making everyone feel ashamed…for a split second.

"It's all been he-" (BOOM!) What was that!? We all looked out the upper window to see the tree across had been struck and was about to fall over, "The tree is going to fall on that house!" I turned to Lily who had a worried look on her face, "See why we had to be quick, if we were quick enough we could have taken this tree down before it got like this!"

"I…I'm-"

"Save it Lily, we've got more important matters! AJ!" AJ gave me a nod and opened the window; she pulled out her rope and wrapped it around the tree. I looked back to see Lily had pulled out her book again; of course. Once the rope was secured AJ and I pulled the rope with all our might toward us.

"Wait!" As Lily and Rarity shouted at us to stop the top of the tree fell into the window and taking up the room consuming me and Applejack into its leaves; as I pushed myself out of the leaves Lily pushed her book into my face, "I was trying to tell you that the tree was too tall, with how it was positioned between the two buildings it was going directly into this room." I looked at the entry reading over it and looking at the diagram…she was right.

"Well no time to dwell on it, time to destroy it!" I dived back in and started beating at the base trying to crack it but having no luck, "AJ help me out!"

"The base is too thick! I can't break it apart!" We can't destroy it unless we know more about it…aw really?

"Lily? I looked to see Lily writing down something completely ignoring me, "Lily!" No response, "I'm sorry Lily." She looked up surprised at me, "Look your book isn't useless, I just wanted us to move along quicker but I hurt you without thinking about it, your book is useful and if I listened to you then we probably wouldn't be in this predicament. But right now I need you to put the book down, this isn't the time for cataloging, this is the time for action…but we could still use any knowledge you've built up before this matter." She gave me a smile and turned to the page she showed me pointing to area with an X on them.

"These areas are the weak points on the tree, hit them at full force and you can split the wood apart, be careful though, it has to be precise or else your just wasting energy. Take your time." I gave her a nod and jumped back in; finding the weak point I took up position and pulled my back legs back and took an extra second to make sure I was lined up correctly. I took my shot and heard the wood crack apart and felt my heart jump with joy; on to the next one! I made sure I hit all points and double checked with Lily to make sure and hit the spots I missed; when it was over the tree fell apart leaving the leaves that Rarity reformed into small statues as Applejack put the base piece out the window and closed it.

"Oh where did these come from? Those aren't in the book either."

We spent the rest of the night playing the games we played before…but with more fun and less animosity towards each other.

"Truth or Dare?" Lily asked me.

"Truth."

"Are you really not interested in getting a colt?"

"Well…I haven't not thought about it."

"Ohhhh, is there a certain somepony you have in mind?" I felt a blush come on as she asked the question nudging me.

"Yes do tell dear, I'm very interested to hear this impossibility Ms. doesn't need a colt." Rarity said with a laugh.

"That's it, now I'm not telling you." I said with a satisfied smile as my cheeks burned and everyone laughed; this was embarrassing…but still fun, "Maybe I'll tell you later." We all laughed and had more fun as we moved from game to game with plenty of laughs and bonding moments as the night wore on, "Hey Lily?" She turned to me as Rarity and Applejack led each other while one was blindfolded, "I'm sorry about everything that happened…and for calling your book useless. It's very useful actually."

"Well I'm sorry for calling you hasty, in some cases that's what we need and other times you take your time on things; I've seen you work on a clothing for hours with precision so I was out of line when I called sloppy and too quick." We both gave a giggle thinking of the pointless fight we had just engaged in, "So…friends?" She asked in her usual shy manner.

"Of course Lily, it was just a rough patch. It was interesting to see you so assertive though. That was new."

"I'm very passionate about my record." She replied holding up her book proudly and then giggled as I joined in.

"Well let's just keep this between us, for both our sakes."

"Sounds good to me." As we all had fun together as friends I looked outside to see the sun breaking through the clouds and to the wet and destroyed area outside, didn't matter though because a friendship and trusting bond was still intact and stronger than ever.

"So can you tell me which special colt you like?"

"Lily…okay but you have to keep it a secret."

"My lips are sealed…after you tell me of course." I was probably going to regret this sooner or later, "Wow…I didn't expect him."

"You can't tell anyone got it?

"Got it." As she said that I heard three other voices and looked to see Rarity, AJ and Twilight looking over us.

"Gah! Were you all listening in?" They all gave a nod and I felt my mind fall apart.

"This is why I don't tell anyone anything! Especially other mares."

"Maybe you should tell a certain colt instead." Rarity said teasing me.

"I'm sure he would be very interested to hear it." Twilight jumped in.

"This conversation is over!" I said walking out feeling my cheeks turn from pink to dark red.

"Sure you don't want to keep talking?" AJ said with a laugh.

"OVER." I said taking off; next time I'm at a slumber party…oh who am I kidding, I'd have done it again, after all they are my friends.


	6. Jokes on you

"Ditzy be careful! We don't want another flower shop incident." I watched as she flew over me passing back and forth as she tried to stay stable.

"That was fun; I looked like a bouquet of every flower!" She said enthusiastically.

"Every flower crushed to dust." I replied chuckling, "I recommend you walk with me instead of fly overhead." Pulling her down she stumbled and shook her head with a big smile; it was another day of delivering mail but something felt off about it. The streets were emptier than normal and stores were boarded up leaving tumble weeds to pass through the streets like an old western movie, "What happened? Is the town in quarantine?"

"Ummm…this seems familiar…oh that's right!" Before she could explain I felt as someone pulled us into the nearby building and when I was let go I looked to see the twin fillies Denys and Penny on their usual bungie system they used for grabbing; that's the seventh time they've done that to me this month! When I looked around I noticed we had been dragged into Sugar Cube Corner where all of our friends were holed up in this building in the darkness; everyone looked scared while me and Twilight were just confused and Ditzy was just…Ditzy.

"What's going on?"

"You haven't heard?" Gareth said looking at me with disbelief, "Zecora came to town."

"…Who?" I've never heard of Zecora.

"She's a witch from the Everfree forest." Sukia said in her usual calm nature, "She visits town and everyone boards up there shops. She's absolutely terrifying."

"You don't seem scared."

"It's unbecoming to let fear show but in reality I'm terrified." It's hard to tell when you give me your usual sweet smile.

"She's great at that." Lily said with a nervous giggle, "But Zecora is really terrifying." I looked out to see the pony in question digging their hoof in to the ground.

"She's eeeeviiilll!" Pinkie said in an eerie tone as she pushed herself into my face waving her hooves around, she suddenly zipped over and began to play on a Theremin as Applejack shook in her hooves as Fluttershy and Lily did the same. Whoever this pony was they definitely made everyone terrified…and I was going to find out why.

"I'm going to go talk to her." Before I could even step outside I felt magic lift me up and looked to see Alice stop me from leaving.

"Are you stupid? She'll probably put a hex on you!" She dropped me on the ground and stood blocking the door, "You may be a knight but that doesn't mean you should take your chances with a witch!"

"If you do she might end up cursing you and we may never see you again!" Gareth said shaking me dizzy, I quickly pushed him off and shook my head trying to put my brain back in the right spot as I heard a strange rattling…hope that wasn't something important.

"That's right; she's not someone to approach. You'd do better just staying hidden until she leaves." Applejack said constantly checking the window and back at a smaller pony with a bow. That must be…I'm drawing a blank.

"That's Applebloom." Lily said whispering into my ear causing me to jump, "She's Applejack and Bigmac's little sister and Granny Smith's granddaughter." So she lives on the Apple Farm, she doesn't have an apple cutie mark though…heck, she doesn't even have A cutie mark.

"This is insane; we can't just hide from her." Twilight said as everyone drew their attention to her, "I'm sure if we talk to her then this will all be cleared up."

"That's what I've been saying!" Applebloom chimed in with a pout on her face.

"Hush your mouth Applebloom, we're going to sit here and just wait it out until she leaves like always." Applejack replied putting a hoof over her mouth and patting her on the head. I looked back outside to get a better look at her; she had stripes of black and white all over her body and searched all over surveying the area, seems she was looking for something…probably a shop that's open, everyone seems to have boarded up their houses and buildings making the entire place seem like a ghost town.

"If any pony were brave enough to talk to her then they would find out the truth." Twilight said to the group as they all kept complaining; as they bickered I heard a door open and looked over to see the lower door wide open and looked around to see three fillies had gone missing, uh oh.

Third Person View

"I'm brave enough." Applebloom said confidently pushing the door open unknowing of the two pairs of eyes that watched as she walked out and followed her out; Denys and Penny followed behind Applebloom just out of her range of sight. Everyone in town knew of the twins' obsession with pulling pranks and thought it would be their talent but a cutie mark never appeared on either of their flanks but that never stopped these two from becoming the biggest pranksters in town next to Pinkie Pie. Their favorite people were the brave and smart because they never got sick of it, whenever they tricked Soren he always shook off the after effects and kept moving which made him a prime target; he always shook off the pranks and kept moving and seemed to get smarter with each prank they threw at him, it gave them a new chance to came up with even more elusive pranks. Villagers in Ponyville always seemed to fall for the same pranks after a few days but he stayed alert to them and even took them on head first setting them off but not getting caught in their repeated pranks making them come up with a new way of tripping him up. With Applebloom acting brave right now they knew that something fun was just around the corner and maybe more people to prank. They followed Applebloom as she followed the stripped pony into the Everfree forest; the forest had always been off limits to the fillies but that rule had been broken by these two troublemakers multiple times when looking for a new angle to add to their tricks and pranks but sadly finding nothing at the boarders they could use. They crossed into a small area thick with strange blue flowers that seemed to bounce happily…almost laughing if someone looked at them a certain way. The three ponies began to walk before a voice cut through stopping them from advancing.

"Hold it right there you three little troublemakers!" Applebloom, Denys and Penny turned around to see Applejack and the group giving them very angry looks; it wasn't going to be a soft punishment for them either.

"Beware, beware!" The zebra shouted through the mist, "Turn back now pony folk, those leave of blue are not a joke."

"Don't try to threaten us with your curses Zecora!" Applejack yelled scooping up Applebloom as she stepped into the blue flowers; Sukia did the same with Denys and Penny as everyone started walking into the plant life as Zecora disappeared into the mist.

"Beware!" With those final words she disappeared into the distance as the mist came in covering the area.

"We should get out of here." Alice said backing up slowly as the mist started to consume them, "I'd rather not get lost in this forest."

"Seconded." Twilight said as everyone started heading back to the entrance of the forest; as AJ scolded Applebloom Pent and Penny looked behind them as Zecoras' shadow loomed in the distance, whatever was happening the twins had a feeling that this little experience wasn't over and they gave a dual snicker at the fun still to come.

Soren

"So what do you think she meant when she said beware?" Fluttershy asked as we walked back to our homes.

"I'm not sure; Applejack, Gareth, Rainbow and Pinkie seemed convinced it was a curse but I feel like she would have said more had she actually cursed us. You know mysterious language and strange movements that seemed scary and mysterious."

"I hope she didn't hex us, I can't handle a curse on top of my daily life." As she said that she began to shiver and whimper.

"I'm sure it's fine, she couldn't do anything to us from that far and she wasn't a unicorn so I'm sure she didn't do anything." I said trying to reassure the frightened Pegasus.

"If you say so, I'm still worried though." We stopped at her house and she slowly opened the door.

"Just get a good night's rest and you'll feel better in the morning. I'm sure of it! Goodnight Fluttershy."

"Goodnight Soren." With that goodbye she closed her door and I rushed off back to my house ready to get some rest for the night; this whole thing with Zecora was just ponies being skeptical of something new, I'm sure that this will be sorted out with a nice chat…hopefully.

"(yawn) Can't focus on this right now, I need some sleep. Can't deliver mail without my eight hours…ten if I get to sleep now." I entered my house and rushed into my bed putting my coat on its' hook and closing my eyes eager to get some rest after all the bickering and arguing that the group did today about Zecora. After a few minutes I felt my consciousness fade into the void as I lulled to dream land.

That night all I could dream about was the conversations I had about Zecora the witch and as the voices swirled around me I began to doubt my judgment of her…what if she was a witch that came to town to curse and ruin every pony's lives. Even some of the townsfolk seem distrustful of her; I mean I trust almost everyone but they really seem convinced of her evil intent…maybe I should look into it and stop her…if need be. It didn't feel right to doubt someone I didn't even know but with so many people around saying these things it was weird not to assume the worst; even my dreams were trying to convince me to doubt her!

I woke up with a yawn and felt the sunlight directly on my face blinding me and making me turn to avoid it…wait…my bed is nowhere near the window! I opened my eyes and look around to see I was in the attic near the ceiling window…and a few feet off the ground no less! I looked on my back to see my wings were flapping without me controlling them; I tried closing them or even trying to stop the flapping but with no luck to be had or even found with this problem; what was wrong with my wings!?

"Soren! We got mail to deliver today!" That's Ditzy; she must have stopped by to get me!

"Ditzy, come in and help me!" The door opened loudly and I heard a loud crash along with some wing flaps; she must be stumbling around the house.

"Where are you?"

"In the attic, can you grab some rope for me?" Another series of crashes and objects falling over followed as I waited for her to come up to the attic; I was going to have to fix a few walls I'm guessing; eventually she soared into the attic and bumped into the roof as she hit the floor and looked at me with her usual bright and happy smile and a rope tangled around her body.

"There you are…why are you flying into the ceiling?"

"My first question to. Can you tie that rope around my waist and lead me to the library?" I asked and she nodded her head rapidly.

"You got it Soren!" It took about half an hour but she eventually led me outside after a few bumps and bruises along the way through my own house; I was able to get a look at the place and I was right, I was going to need to fix some holes…a LOT of holes.

Ditzy led me through the town as my wings kept trying to send me soaring into the sky, luckily with Ditzy holding the rope and walking I was able to stay just close enough to the ground that I wasn't terrified of the height difference. I'm pretty sure Ditzy didn't know where she was going though, we passed town hall about three times and I had bumped into the same house enough times that I could see the dent I had left grow each time.

"Ditzy, maybe we should get directions to the library." I said stopping her in her tracks.

"Don't worry, I know where we're going Soren."

"Really?" I said in genuine disbelief.

"I've been following these tracks in front of us, they look familiar so they must be Twilight's and they should lead to the library."

"Are you sure those aren't you tracks Ditzy?" She looked down at the tracks and cocked her head to the side in deep thought.

"They do fit my hooves." I need to find someone else to help me out, if I keep having Ditzy lead me then she'll put a groove into her repeated path and I'll destroy a house by bumping into it; maybe I should find Alice.

"Let's head to Carousel Boutique, I think Alice could help us out." I said pointing to the building that was luckily in our line of sight; she gave a nod and rushed over making me crash into buildings in a zigzag pattern to the shop

"We're here!" She said coming to a grinding halt and sending me crashing through the window; in the span of a second my vision caught the window and then Alice's shocked face before crashing into her and sending us tumbling into a pile of fabric.

"Are you crazy? Why did you fly through my window?" I looked up to see Alice with an angry look on her face but the voice I heard was very docile and almost receptive…kind of like Fluttershys' and Lilys', "Are you going to answer me or keep sitting there like and idiot?"

"What's wrong with your voice!?" I yelled in shock as I rose into the ceiling stopping a few feet above it; even from above her I could see the blush forming on her face.

"For some reason my voice was docile and weak when I woke up this morning. I wish I could scream at you but this is the highest volume I can attain and it's beginning to make me mad." She said calmly and in a low volume…it was kind of funny, "Stop snickering…and what's wrong with you?" She asked pointing to my wings as I rose into the ceiling dragging Ditzy by the mouth; before I reached it Alice grabbed Ditzy and pulled her down grabbing the rope she was holding and yanking it sending me crashing into the ground.

"That hurt." I said rubbing my head.

"Just answer the question please."

"Your guess is as good as mine; I woke up in my attic and had Ditzy lead me here by rope."

"You trusted Derpy to lead you here?"

"Actually our destination was the Golden Oak library but-"

"Got it, you need me to take you there?"

"Yep, hopefully Twilight knows what to do."

"I hope, I can't sell if I don't sound confident." With that Alice grabbed my rope and led me outside leading us to the library; right my job!

"Ditzy, can you cover my shift; I've got something more important to fix right now."

"I'm on it!" Ditzy soared off into the sky out of view as we walked away.

"You realize you trusted Derpy to do extra work right?" Alice said in her unusual soft tone.

"Yeah, I'm going to be working a triple shift later." I replied with a sigh.

We entered the library to see everyone else standing there all looking out of sorts like we were; even Gareth, Lily and Sukia seemed to be dealing with an issue with themselves; Gareth's' body was now spindly and twig like making him shake as he stood there. Lily didn't look any different but her eyes seemed glued to a single point on the floor; the strangest was Sukia who, instead of her usual calm demeanor, was shivering one minute and then laughing the next and after that she wept openly. She jumped from emotion to emotion at such a fast rate that I was honestly scared to approach her for fear of what she might emote next.

"What is happening?" Alice asked and from her stance she obviously wanted to scream it in disbelief but thanks to her condition the only thing that happened were her cheeks turning a deep red; seems Twilight and the gang was having a similar problem. Twilight's horn was floppy and covered in strange dots, Pinkie's tongue was swollen and she couldn't talk, Rarity's mane was out of control covering her eyes, Rainbow's wings were upside down and making her crash into everything, Applejack and Fluttershy were the oddest of the bunch with AJ smaller than her sister and Fluttershy's voice so deep she could be disguised for a colt from just hearing the voice and nothing else. Whatever had happened it affected to everyone…except Applebloom, Pent and Penny who didn't have a thing wrong with them.

"It's a curse I tells ya!" Applebloom yelled in her squeaky voice.

"We have to head to Zecora's and get her to remove this curse!" Dash said as she crashed from side to side unable to land.

"For the last time it's not a curse!" Twilight said annoyed.

"We have to get her to remove this hex!" Applejack shouted in her squeaky voice.

"It's not a hex!" Twilight shouted tiered of everyone's assumptions and accusations.

"We can't just jump to conclusions on this every pony." I said trying to move into the center as I rose to the roof again, "We have to think rationally and calmly about this before we decide to-" As I talked I must have drifted into a bookshelf as I bumped into one and felt as a pile of books smothered me and sent me to the ground.

"I say we go after Zecora!" Sounds like Dash talking.

"I agree." Rarity chimed in as she blew trying to get the hair out of her eyes. I couldn't exactly tell what she said but I assume Pinky is on board; without her talking it was actually easier to tell what she wanted to say to us.

"Can we just think for a minute before-" I felt a book smack my noggin and looked to see Alice over me.

"I think we are well past that point Soren, it's time for action." Everyone except me, Twilight and Sukia who I couldn't tell what side she was on rallied behind her and everyone left the library leaving me and Sukia there on our own…and Lily seemed stuck running into a wall as she tried to follow the group while still having her eyes stuck to the ground.

"This floor has no detail to it!" She yelled obviously sick of the same sight; how did she even make it to the library?

"Sukia can you help me follow them to Zecora's?" I asked and she looked up wide eyed at me making me cringe slightly; this might be worse than asking Ditzy to help me.

"I'd be happy to help you Soren! I don't think I'm good enough to help you…maybe but don't stare at me, it's embarrassing. DO YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT WHAT I WANT TO DO!" Oh boy.

After about an hour we finally caught up to the group and they had stopped in front of a strange shack in the Everfree forest; it was made out of a tree and covered in strange ornamental masks and plants that were ordained on the door.

"I'll bust the door down and get us inside!" Gareth said as he reared his back hooved and launched them at the door but instead of breaking it down his hooves brushed against the door and sent him face first into the dirt, "This is a cruel joke."

"Over here." Alice said softly beckoning us to the window, everyone gathered around as I hovered above them with SUkia holding the rope and crying.

"I'm sorry. I just don't know what's wrong." She said sniveling; even though I couldn't hear what was happening I could hear as Zecora who I was guessing was inside chanted in a strange unknown language.

"The perfect temperature for ponies I presume. Now where are Pent, Penny and Applebloom?" I looked around just coming to the realization that not only were the twins and Applebloom missing but it seems we lost AJ and Dash on our way here; did Zecora do something to them!? Now I can't just sit around, I have to save them! With all my strength I pulled myself down and jumped into the window trying to grab Zecora, as I flew at her she fell out of my sight as I was pulled into the roof blocking the top that was open. As I tried to dislodge myself from the opening the room filled with steam quickly, "Why do you make my chimney choke; now this room will fill with smoke!" She yelled giving me an angry look.

"I would love to dislodge myself but I need you to remove this curse and return our friends!" I said pointing at her.

"That's right!" The door burst open and steam poured out as Twilight and the gang stood there, "Remove the hex you cast on us Zecora!" As she yelled that Rainbow burst in and crashed around the room completely destroying everything in her path; when I looked closely I noticed a tiny harness and AJ on her stomach…was I hallucinating? When it was over the shack was completely destroyed and Zecora looked extremely pissed at all of us.

"How rude you all have been, you destroy my shack and accuse me of a sin!" She said giving all of us a glare.

"We found everything you need Zecora!" We turned our head to see Applebloom and the twins enter through the doorway and give surprised looks, "What in the hay happened here?"

"Applebloom, you're okay!" AJ said jumping onto her head, "We thought Zecora had eaten you!"

"What!? Are you all featherbrained?" Applebloom said as the twins snickered and laughed at what we just did…it really stings when kids seem to keep their head on straighter than us, "Zecora wouldn't eat me…and she's not a witch?"

"What about what happened to us?" AJ asked still skeptical.

"A humorous plant that has given you a poke, a little plant called poison joke." Zecora pointed to a plant on her shelf that looked very familiar…it was those blue plants we found when Zecora disappeared into the mist!

"She was actually coming up with a brew to fix you all before that." Applebloom said pointing to the knocked over pot; guess we screwed up royally.

"Is it too late to apologize?" I asked making Zecora roll her eyes with a smile.

"My shack is in a bit of a mess, clean up my shack and you will be lifted of your regret and stress."

"Fair enough."

Once the shack was cleaned we all went to Ponville and had the spa set up a bath for all of us to recover from the poison joke; after a bit of convincing and explanation the spa owner let us use the big tub and I and Rainbow Dash both made the first splash into the antidote…literally.

"FINNALY!" Alice yelled getting her usual strong and in charge voice that I had honestly missed after the day without it, "Ah…I feel whole again." I chuckled happily looking around at everyone who looked happy to be back to their usual self; Gareth was back to his tall and strong body while Lily's eyes darted at every corner of the room happy to be looking at every detail around her instead of just the floor. I jumped out of the pool and moved over to Sukia who was back to her calm self.

"Done with you mood swings Ms. Calm?" As I nudged her she turned a bright red of embarrassment and she gave a small giggle.

"Over your fear of heights after that trip on the roof?" Alice asked surprising me.

"I don't know maybe if you whispered I could give you an answer."

"Hahaha. Very funny."

"It kind of was." Gareth said chuckling, "You couldn't yell like you usually do."

"I don't yell all the time!"

"You just did."

"Shut it Soren!"

"And again!"

"Well now you can go back to pushing open doors…or maybe you preferred just brushing your hooves against them Gareth." We all laughed as we enjoyed heckling everyone's poison joke forms.

"Poison Joke opens up a whole new section to record!" Lily said clutching her book and squealing happily.

"Just don't go poisoning everyone or I'll make sure your eyes are permanently glued to the floor got it little sis?" Sukia said heckling Lily who giggled in response. As we all talked I felt someone tap my back and looked behind to see Denys and Penny with a glass of milk for everyone; they were actually being nice…what was the catch? No Soren, you doubted Zecora and made things worse, I have to trust them before I can distrust them; we all took a drink of milk and gave a relieved sigh, that milk was delicious. After a few minutes I opened my eyes and looked to see I was back on the ceiling; looking down Gareth was back to spindly, Lily was back to looking at the ground and Sukia was on the mood swing again.

"Not again. Those two are going to pay." Alice said softly as her face turned red, I looked down to see the twins rolling on the ground laughing uproariously at what had just happened; how did they do it!? No…they didn't add a concentrated dose of poison joke to the milk did they…they did! As Alice chased them they ran out of the spa leaving us back in our poisoned predicament; thinking about it this situation was worse than we could think of. Not only did they trick us into drinking poison joke milk but they now had a plant to incorporate into their future pranks…the future did not look good for the citizens of Ponyville…and especially not for me.


	7. Healthy Competition

"98…99…1…00!" I fell to the floor exhausted from my morning workout and heaved; I had just finished my pushups and was about to start on my wing stretches, even if I wasn't working today I had to keep up my strength in case another parasprite incident hits our town. During that whole thing I had to keep them from eating the town out of house and home, first figuratively then it turned literal; luckily Pinkie had a traveling band that put them back in the Everfree forest. As I began my stretches I heard slow hoof claps and looked over to see Gareth looking over my backyard fence,

"100 pushups, not bad but I could do that in my sleep." He said boasting.

"No you can't, that's not easy you know. I had to train for years just to get that good."

"Then your training is a bit lacking."

"Oh yeah? How about a little contest? First person to do 200 pushups wins!"

"Now you're speaking my language!" He relied jumping over the fence.

"What are you two doing?" We both looked to see Lily, Alice and Sukia looking over the other side.

"We're about to have a little competition." Gareth said with a cocky attitude.

"Why?" Alice asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"He says he can do a hundred pushups in his sleep so we decided to have a little test, first person to two hundred pushups wins!" I replied feeling pumped.

"Is it worth it?" Alice asked not sure why we were doing this.

"Colts just need to have a little fun now and then and this is the way some do it." Sukia explained.

"Well it's stupid. Not everything is a contest."

"Shows what you know." Gareth said getting into position, "One day I'm going to be the best at every contest and then you'll be amazed!"

"Yeah, yeah…when you win a fashion contest then I'll be amazed." Alice said sitting on the fence as I got into position.

"Lily can you keep score for us?" I asked and she pulled out a clipboard and pencil.

"And…go!" With Sukia's mark we began doing pushups as quick as we could trying to go faster and faster; 17,18,19,20! I kept count in my head and took occasional glances at Gareth to see he hadn't even worked up a sweat and we were almost at fifty pushups.

"Gareth has passed the fifty mark!" Lily said shocking me; I was barely at forty-five and he was already five ahead of me; come on Soren put it into overdrive! 43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55; I pushed up and down as fast as I could moving faster and faster getting into a rhythm; 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, "Soren and Gareth have both passed the halfway point!" Alright, I caught up with Gareth, now to pass him; 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120! I felt my face begin to build up with sweat from my brow; I had pushed myself past my usual point and I couldn't stop myself from trying even more, I didn't even feel like exhaustion would stop me at all! Come on, almost done; 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200! I fell to the floor with a flop as Gareth did the same, "Done! Well done both of you!"

"Who…who won?" I asked panting; my hooves and legs were exhausted and stinging with pain as they throbbed.

"You tied!"

"What!?" Gareth and I said that at the same time looking at each other surprised; we tied? I thought I had pulled ahead at the end.

"Gareth had a quick pace but Soren suddenly became faster than Gareth."

"Unfortunately he was already pretty ahead of you by the time you caught up." Alice began, "So by the end you had both finished your last pushup at the same time." So that's what happened, it was weird though I had never even come close to two hundred before just now; I wonder what pushed me so hard…ow! As I tried standing I felt my legs clench and sat back down in pain; looks like the pain caught up with me after all was said and done.

"I don't think I can live with that." Gareth said standing up without a hint of pain on his face, "A tie is just not something I can let happen." He pointed over to me with a determined look on his face, "Alright Soren, the running of the leaves is coming up in two days and we're going to run it!"

"Wait why?" I asked surprised at his sudden declaration.

"I can't leave this at a tie so were going to go up against each other in a race during the running of the leafs, we'll see who wins there!" The running of the leafs, we've never done that in Canterlot or back home.

"What's the running of the leaves?"

"It's an event in which ponies run through the woods during fall to shake leafs off the trees." Sukia said, "It's a beautiful event where you can watch the leaves fall as ponies gallop through the forest, it's also a marathon race where ponies compete to get to the end as quickly as possible."

"But it's mostly for getting the leaves to fall." Alice chimed in.

"And I've won for five years in a row!" Gareth boasted; five years straight!?

"You couldn't have." I said in disbelief.

"It's true." Lily said pulling her journal out, she flipped to Gareth's page and pointed to a small sentence, 'Has earned first place in the Running of the Leafs five years in a row.'

"Wow."

"And this year will be six!" Gareth said getting more excited, "I'll see you on the day of the race, I'm going to go train!" With that he bolted off towards Sweet Apple Acres kicking up dust as he did.

"(Cough Cough) I hate when he (Cough) gets so excited." Alice said coughing from the dust.

"It always ends in (Cough) dust coughing." Lily said taking a deep breath trying to stop coughing. Feeling my strength return I stood up stretching to get the tension and pain out of my body; two hundred pushups, that's my best record yet…but the race is going to be a different story, maybe I should check out the woods where the race is happening.

As Lily and I approached the woods I could see as various ponies were running through the woods one at a time as a Pegasus pony stood by with a stop watch and as he started it he took off into the sky over the woods.

"Looks like ponies are here to test their speed." Lily said looking at the long line.

"Good thing I brought you then." I began, "You're going to be my personal timer. Have you got a stop watch and clipboard?" She pulled them out in a flash.

"Lucky for you Dash wanted to do some aerial practice." She replied with a giggle.

"All right let's get started!" I took my place at the starting line ready to spend all day practicing.

"Ready…" I took a deep breath, "Set…" placed my hooves in running position, "Go!" and galloped as fast as I could! Faster and faster using all of my energy to move as quickly as possible, it didn't take long for me to start to feel as though I was running out of energy; I started to slow to a walk panting heavily, this was not going well for me already.

"Hey Soren."

"Gah!...Pinkie!?" I looked to see Pinkie in the middle of the forest at a small table with bottles of water lining from one end of the table to the other end, "What are you doing in the middle of the forest?"

"Well ponies have been practicing all day and they decided that they should probably keep them hydrated and I thought to myself, what's a good bottle of water if it isn't accompanied by a cupcake or two, so I set this halfway point to hydrate and sugar rush ponies that need it!"

"I'm not entirely sure a sugar rush is needed during a race…wait, did you say halfway point?"

"Yep! You've made it halfway, good for you! Have a cupcake!" With that she shoved the sugary pastry into my mouth and I began to chew, grabbing a bottle of water I washed down the cupcake and gave a satisfied breath. Looking back at the table I looked to see another bottle had replaced the one I drank.

"How did you…never mind. Thanks Pinkie." I began running again as she waved me off, feeling the sugar rush kick in I dashed further into the forest, I felt myself move faster at the idea that I was at the halfway point and moved faster and faster…and then slower and slower…curse you Pinkie and your sugar rush! Eventually I looked out to see the finish line with Lily waiting there and rushed forward at top speed towards it; I dived forward onto the line and panted exhausted from the mad dash.

"How…how was that?" I asked looking up at Lily.

"Forty five minutes. Not bad." She replied with a smile.

"Really?"

"Yep. Compared to the rest you're at least tenth placing material!" Tenth place, that's not good enough if I want to beat Gareth.

"What's Gareth's record?"

"Um…26 minutes." 26 minutes!? How did he pull that off!? Even gliding I can only get about thirty five minutes at most!

"Guess I've got a lot more practice ahead of me." I said getting back up, "This will probably take all day; you can head home if you want Lily."

"Well I do have some work to do, but I don't want to leave you on your own…I know!" Lily suddenly took off and left me at the finish line on my own; 26 minutes…he really has the most endurance I've ever seen in a pony, he might even have more than Capitan Shining Armor. As I pondered Lily walked back with Alice following behind her with her holding a bag, "Alice can help you out in my place?" Lily said pushing her forward, "It gives you a chance to spend some time together." What?

"That's why you dragged me here?" Alice said sounding annoyed; with that Lily began to fly off.

"Have fun you two." Lily eventually went out of sight leaving me and Alice alone.

"What was that about?" I asked and Alice shrugged.

"Who knows, now why am I here?"

"I need you to keep time while I run through the woods."

"Then I'm glad I brought this." Alice pulled a small suit out of the bag and handed it to me as she pulled my coat off me, "I've been working on a new line of tracksuits that help you run for longer and keep sweat from building up over your brow." As she said that the tracksuit was put on me and I felt it squeeze my body and the latex squeaked as I moved around, "You're my first tester of it. Most people don't want to try my clothing line so you get the chance to try it before anyone else."

"Really? Why don't people want to test your clothing?"

"Rarity won't touch it unless it's fashionable and Sweetie Bell is too small to wear any of them. I can't hire anyone to test them out and everyone is too busy in town to help me out."

"Well then I'm glad to be helping out."

"That's good, now I'll time you while you run in the tracksuit and make sure the enchantments work, I can't give these to my buyer until their perfect."

"And I won't give up until I can shave my time down to at least thirty minutes!"

"Then I'm glad I grabbed this at the library." She pulled out a small book from her pouch, "Running for hay-brains, the book for those who want to run to their best and fastest."

"Well then let's get to work, both of us!" With that we gave a hoof shake and started our dual roles as I trained; we worked through the day with Alice giving me advice after each run as she worked on the problems I found with the tracksuit. By the time I was to tiered and exhausted to continue the moon was high in the sky by the time we were both ready to head out…honestly that was one of the most fun days I've had since being here. For the time I've been here I've been working on training between mail deliveries and hanging out with the group occasionally but right now I was being productive and enjoying my time with a friend, it felt good and I enjoyed it immensely; I even got my time down to thirty-five minutes, maybe it wasn't where I wanted it but I didn't mind I had tomorrow to get even better!

"Thanks a lot for the help Soren, now my tracksuits are perfect for the Wonderbolts!" Did she say Wonderbolts!?

"Those are for THE Wonderbolts?" As I asked she gave a look of defeat and shame.

"Yes…but don't tell anyone!"

"How did you pull that deal off?"

"Rarity is famous for her amazing clothes lines and when they heard about an understudy with a talent for enchanting they gave me a chance, that's why I want this to be perfect. It's my chance to get even more clients and become even better with my enchanting so I can't blow this."

"Well…if you need any more help than I've got your back! I'd be glad to test any of your outfits."

"Are you sure about that? Not all enchantments are going to be pleasant you know."

"Yeah…and latex is SO comfortable." She giggle at my sarcasm and nudged me over.

"Fine but do say I didn't warn you."

The next day was a work day, so I made sure to finish my rounds as quickly as possible.

"So you're going to be in The Falling of the Leaves?" Ditzy asked as we delivered the mail for the day.

"Gareth wants to race so we're going to do it during the event." I responded placing the package on the door step.

"I was thinking of doing that too, it seems fun."

"Well it's the running of the leaves so you might want to land." I pulled her back and down to the ground before she collided with the door, "I'm still not fast enough to beat him though."

"Is it important to beat him?"

"Not really but I feel like I should do my best for some reason…any reason why?" I looked over to see Ditzy wasn't there anymore, "Ditzy?" Suddenly there was a crashing sound and I turned to see Ditzy face first in a bed of tulips, "Cut back on the flying for a few minutes Ditzy, it might do you some good." I helped her up and wiped the dirt out of her face and the tulips out of her mane, "Now come on, we've got mail to deliver." As we passed through the town square I could hear the familiar sound of Sukia's singing calling me as I delivered my last letter to the mayor; it was weird how I found my hooves walking on their own to where her voice was coming from. As I approached where she was sitting I looked around to see I had ended up at the park fountain with her lying down on a nearby bench; as she sung her horn glowed with a gentle light but it didn't seem to be affecting anything around the area. As I listened I felt someone crash into me and looked to see Ditzy had flown into me; she really can't go very long without flying can she? As I hot back up Lily rushed past me and stopped in front of Sukia who then stopped and looked at her sister.

"I have the book." Lily said holding up a book, "Magic 101, a book for fillies just getting the hang of magic."

"What are you two doing?" I asked dusting myself off.

"Oh, hi Soren." Sukia said giving me a wave.

"We're trying out some magic." Lily said holding up the book to me.

"Isn't that a book for basic magic?"

"Well…um, Sukia isn't…um…"

"I'm not exactly much of a magical unicorn." Sukia finished, "It's not very strong and only materializes when I sing." That must be why her horn was glowing as she sung, "So we decided to see what I could do with it."

"Well if you need help I'm willing to offer it." I said, "I just finished up my mail route for the day so I'm good to go."

"What about training?" Lily asked, "Don't you have to get better at running?"

"I got it down to thirty minutes; if I push myself during the race and get into a steady rhythm like I did during the pushup contest then I should be able to beat him." As I said that Lily suddenly got a worried look on her face, "What's wrong?" She pulled the book over her face and suddenly dropped it and stumbled trying to pick it up; as she did her journal fell out and opened up to Gareth's page, under records was a line labeled racing and with 22 minutes marked next to it.

"Twenty two minutes!? When did he do this!?"

"Oh…well it was on my way back, he asked me to keep score and…that…was what he got…sorry." Now he's a whole eight minutes faster than me, I can't beat that with just will and determination…maybe some laps around the fountain would help me.

"Don't worry Soren, we've got this, you go practice."

"I can stay; I'll just do a few laps around the fountain and when you need me just ask." I said still wanting to help but get better…with breaks though I might not be able to get better than I am now; the only way I can decrease my time is to get my legs to run as fast as they can. But I need all the time I can get to come up with the most effective way to run; guess I've just got to use what I can and take breaks when I'm too exhausted to run. As I started running Sukia started singing softly and I listened as I dashed around the fountain focusing on every hoof step trying to see if I can make every step count and be less exhausting. Lap after lap after lap and I didn't feel my energy fade at all, even after twenty five laps I still felt I could do another fifty and still have energy left over.

"Go Soren!" I heard Ditzy cheer from a park bench and then suddenly a snap and crash from that direction.

"Impressive." Sukia said stopping her singing and at that moment I felt my body collapse to the ground; all of my energy was suddenly sapped from me in an instant mysteriously, it was like I was energized by some outside force and then suddenly pulled away without warning.

"Are you okay Soren?" Lily asked helping me up.

"You went down like a rock." Sukia added.

"Yeah…I suddenly lost all my strength at once and then my body completely fell apart on me." I responded getting back up on my hooves and shaking my head trying to get my senses back, "How is your magic coming along?" Sukia shook her head and Lily gave a defeated sigh.

"We've tried various spells but they don't seem to do anything at all. Even levitation is impossible; even Alice can do levitation." Lily said sadly, "Sorry sister, looks like this is a bust."

"It's okay little sis, I've never used magic as a necessity anyway." Sukia said trying to cheer up her sister, "Maybe a song will make you feel better." She started singing again and as she sang I felt a sudden boost of energy overwhelmed me…that's it; I looked over at Sukia to see her horn was glowing softly as she sang her melody.

"I think I know what your magic is." She stopped and Lily looked up surprised at what I said, "Your magic is activated through your music Sukia, you have the ability to energize those around you by singing. It's why your voice is so captivating; it powers ponies and makes them feel like they can keep going. It's why I was able to run 25 laps and still keep going." As I explained it Sukia's expression didn't change so much but Lily suddenly went wide eyed as she pulled out her journal and started scribbling into it.

"Well you made her day." Sukia said with a giggle.

"And you?"

"Just gives me another reason to sing. But I suppose I should pay you back for that, need anything?"

"…Yeah, it might end up drying your throat though." Suddenly Pinkie crash to the ground and handed Sukia a liter of water before saluting and climbing back up the tree and disappearing into the leafs, "How does she do that?" Sukia replied with a shrug.

"You get used to it."

I waited at the starting line for the race to start and looked around at the others who were running the race, mostly earth ponies and Unicorns were running with me and Dash being the exception; it seemed like Dash and AJ were having some sort of feud. They were giving each other angry looks and Rainbow had rope keeping her wings down; maybe I should try that with Ditzy on our next mail run.

"You're racing too Soren?" I turned to see Twilight trot up to me.

"Yeah, but why are you running the race? Aren't you more book savvy then…well, exercise anything."

"I'll have you know I'm not opposed to exercise, just can't it very informing."

"Then why are you trying today?"

"I've heard that the Running of the Leafs is one of the most beautiful sights and I'll have you know that I've read plenty of books on running so don't count me out so soon." She replied confidently.

"Well I've been training to beat Gareth so it won't be easy to pass me." I boasted.

"We'll see about that, I have a strategy."

"So do I."

"That will be interesting to see." I turned to see Gareth approaching with Alice, Lily, Sukia and the twins behind him, "Time to see what you've got." Gareth came up with a cocky smile and I felt my blood begin to pump with adrenaline and excitement.

"We'll be waiting at the finish line." Sukia said.

"I'll be keeping time for Gareth." Lily said and then nudged Alice.

"I've got you Soren." Alice said levitating a stopwatch in front of us.

"Then I'll see you guys in a few minutes." Gareth said boasting before the race was even over; this feeling as he boast is like when we went up against each other in the pushup race, I've got to give it my all! The others walked away as Gareth and I got into position ready to go.

"Everypony on your marks, get set…GO!" With Pinkie's mark we began to run as fast as we could through the forest; it was just Gareth, Dash, AJ and I at the front all trying to pass each other with one pulling ahead and then someone else passing them, we traded first place over and over trying to pass each other with all our energy, "We've got Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash, Soren and Gareth all gunning for first place giving their all to pass each other and get ahead of the group!"

"That's right Pinkie!" Spike added, "I've heard that all of these ponies have been training for this day and it sure is showing itself in how their pulling out all the stops."

"There are no stop signs on the course Spike, although that might make this the stopping of the leafs if they were."

"Right…"

"Speaking of it looks like Gareth is charging ahead!" Not if I can help it!

"Hold your horses Pinkie; Soren isn't letting that slide without a fight!"

"I hope they don't fight; there wouldn't be much of a race for those two if they stopped to brawl." I galloped side by side with Gareth as we tried to outdo each other; hopefully my strategy would work here. One hoof in front of the other, small leaps and push forward with long steps; I pulled ahead and took in a deep breath taking as few breaths as possible to reduce exhausting myself, suddenly Gareth started moving faster and ran next to me with a determined look on his face.

"Going to have to do better than that!" Gareth said with a smile.

"I'm not done yet!" I replied; we rushed as fast as we could staying neck and neck and after a few minutes I couldn't hear Pinkie and Spike or the other racers at all; even Rainbow and AJ fell behind of us. I lost track of time as we raced against each other putting everything into it and not giving each other any room; strangely enough I didn't feel like getting angry or competitive…just happy and exhilarated at what was happening. When I looked forward I could see the finish line come into view and Gareth seemed to increase his speed as he saw it too; I matched it and ran faster and faster and faster and faster and faster! When the finish line came close enough I dove forward at it as Gareth did the same and we flopped onto the ground with the finish ribbon under us.

"We have our first finishers!" Somepony said as we got up panting heavily as we had used every bit of energy against each other in that race; now that it was over I felt like collapsing onto the ground but then Gareth asked an important question for both of us.

"Who won?" Alice and Lily looked at their stop watches and gave a small gasp.

"Um…you tied."

"Really!?" We both asked surprised.

"Down to the millisecond to…that's eerie." Alice said squinting at her stop watch; I looked over her shoulder to look at our time…18 minutes 42 seconds and 283 milliseconds! I looked over at Lily's stopwatch to see the exact same thing; they were right, we tied right down to the millisecond! We even beat Gareth's last record by about five minutes; I don't know what came over me during that race but I was able to do even better than any practice I've ever had.

"Another tie…that's it!" Gareth said with a giant smile, "You are now my rival!"

"What!?"

"You heard me; every time I go up against you we end up in a tie and even stranger is that I do even better than I've ever done before. Before that pushup challenge I had only made it to 150 pushups before."

"We seem to push ourselves past our limits when against each other." I said thinking to myself.

"Sounds like you have a good friend Soren." That voice! I turned to see Princess Celestia standing there in front of us.

"Princess Celestia!" I gave a bow and she chuckled before raising my head up.

"I'm glad to see you're still wearing the trench coat I gave you, and even more to see you becoming even better because of your friend."

"What do you mean?"

"I've heard from your friends that you were training for two days and helping them get stronger. By working with your friends you not only became better but those around you became better to."

"So what you're saying is that by working together we became even better together than we could have alone?"

"Exactly." She pointed over to Gareth, "Even going against each other you became better together." As we talked ponies began to cross the finish line, "Just remember that at the end of a competition your still friends."

"Don't worry Princess, I couldn't become stronger without them and I'll never stop thinking of them as friends, I trust them too much to think of them any other way."

"Good. I was actually wondering if you and your friends could help me with something."

"Really, what do you need?" She pointed to the racers coming over the finish line.

"Let's talk about this after the event. I'm guessing the day isn't over yet." She then pointed over the line where AJ and Dash were tumbling towards us in a dead heat for last place, well I guess it can wait till tomorrow.

"Hey Soren?" Gareth tapped me and gave me an inviting smile, "You wanna race again?" I ave him a determined smile.

"Bring it…rival…hehehe!"


	8. Knightly Duty

"Princess Luna?" I sat on the train back to Canterlot with Gareth, Alice and Lily and Celestia explained what she needed us for.

"What's wrong with Nightmare Moon?" Lily asked before she covered her mouth ashamed of her slip up.

"It's okay Lily, you aren't the only one who has made that mistake." Celestia said sadly, "It's been a few months since you four, Twilight and the others brought Luna back to her senses but even with Luna back it hasn't been an easy adjustment for everyone, some have even become more hostile towards her."

"What do you mean more hostile?" Alice asked.

"She has been attacked." What!?

"Why would- hang on!" Gareth ran off towards the train bathroom in a rush; motion sickness, no fun for anyone.

"Why are people attacking her? She's not Nightmare Moon anymore." I said.

"As much as I have tried to explain that to my subjects some are not so trusting of her. Thanks to them my sister has started to recede and close herself up. That's why I was hoping that you could get her to trust you four." She responded looking at me, "You four were able to turn your trust for each other into the strength to become an alicorn. I'm hoping you can influence Luna into giving other ponies a chance by showing her what trusting other ponies can do for her." So we have to convince Princess Luna to trust other ponies; that's not going to be easy, even I don't know why these guys trusted me so much in the Everfree forest…but I'm sure we can convince Princess Luna…hopefully.

"Well do what we can princess." I said confidently. The train came into Canterlot with a screech and steam release jostling me from my seats and sending me crashing to the train floor.

"Not used to the train?" Alice asked helping me up.

"I don't usually travel; most forms of transportation are foreign to me." I said with a chuckle.

"Ahhh, the train stopped." Gareth said coming out of the bathroom.

"Don't worry you're not the only one."

As we walked through Canterlot the group looked around in awe at the refinement and class that the entire city exerted through the up class shops and buildings and the well-dressed ponies that walked the street next to us. For me it wasn't too different as I had walked these streets before and it felt the same as when I lived here; it wasn't a bad feeling though, just a lonely one; the last time I walked these streets I was always walking by myself, house to training ground and back again. As we approached the palace I looked up at the regal and intimidating building; looking behind me I could see the look of amazement on everyone else's face.

"It's bigger than you think it would be from Ponyville." Gareth said looking at every corner he could see.

"Princesses really live in luxury." Lily said scribbling in her book, "This is the first chance I've gotten at recording the Canterlot castle!"

"Aren't we here to help Luna?" Alice asked and Lily put her book away embarrassed at how excited she got. We followed Celestia into the castle and down the winding corridors till we came to the western wing of the castle; the corridors were dimly lit and seemed to block a lot of sunlight making it darker. Despite this though the area was still fairly visible and every door was within the light making it so nothing was in the dark but still had the feeling of being in the dark; it definitely fit the Princess of the night with how it gave a feeling of quiet darkness and yet felt comfortable.

"This is Luna's wing of the castle, as you can see it is less populated and empty." Celestia explained…something wasn't right though.

"Where are her guards?" I asked; the one time I went to Celestia's wing she had guards lining every corridor and corner with some stationed in front of doors for extra measure.

"I'm afraid to say that none of the royal guards have volunteered to protect my dear sister and those I've stationed have not been so loyal to protect her. Unfortunately an attacker was one of the royal guards." What; that's just completely insane!

"How could they?" Alice said in shock.

"Did they go insane?" Gareth asked.

"No, they just couldn't trust her. Nightmare Moon's influence left too big a scar in their minds."

"It still goes against everything we learned in the knights' code!" I said defensively, "Rule #7: No matter what knights don't attack the princess under any circumstance! That includes Luna!"

"You are right Soren that's why I'm entrusting this task to you. I know you will keep her safe as well."

"Of course I will. Rule #3: Knights will protect the princess from any harm while stationed under their command."

"You remembered that code backwards and forward didn't you?" Gareth said amazed.

"Of course I did. If I was going to be a knight then I had to dedicate to it!" I replied proudly, "Don't worry Celestia I will protect Princess Luna!"

"I know you will. I trust you to bring her around." With those words Celestia left us in front of Luna's door on our own; the door was adorned with a nameplate that read Princess Luna with the title Princess of the Night underneath it. Suddenly there was a strange explosion sound that came from inside causing everyone to back up while I rushed the door pushing it open; as I bust inside the room a dark blue pony jumped in surprise, this must be Princess Luna.

"You startled us!" She said in a loud amplified voice, "What are you four doing interrupting us in our private chamber?" We all covered our ears as she yelled; she gave us a cocked eyebrow before giving a look of surprise, "The ponies that saved us from the strange alicorn. It is a pleasure to see you under happier terms."

"Then would you mind turning the volume down?" Lily said rubbing her ear.

"Is this not the royal volume?"

"I'm sure it is but it's deafening." Alice said shaking her head.

"Our apologies, I suppose using it in a small room is not good." Her voice was much quieter this time and at an appropriate level.

"Thank you." I said feeling the ringing in my ears become quieter and quieter. As we all regained our senses I looked to see Luna back up hesitantly, "Is something wrong Princess?"

"Why are you four here? We were not told of your coming by our gua-" before she finished she clammed up and looked away, "Regardless we still should have been alerted to your arrival by our sister."

"What's with the 'we' and 'us' speak?" Gareth asked.

"It's the royal pronunciation." Lily answered, "It hasn't been used in centuries though."

"She was worried that you might lock yourself up if she told you." I said.

"Well she would have been right, most ponies these days don't exactly trust us after what we did as Nightmare Moon. We cannot blame them either, after what we have done we do not deserve the trust of other ponies." As she said that she sat back down picking up a game controller in front of her T.V. and playing her paused game; that must have been where the explosion sound came from.

"That's not true, what's not to trust about you?"

"We did try to plunge the world into eternal night and imprison our sister in the same moon she did to us as Nightmare Moon."

"Well…anything else?"

"Not helping." Alice said pushing me to the side, "I'm sure there is plenty good you did, isn't there?"

"Being imprisoned in the moon."

"Not what I meant."

"Let me try." Gareth said moving forward, "I'm sure that you've got some good qualities, why don't you name a few?"

"Can't betray anyone because no one trusts us, alone so no one can worry about us, raise the moon."

"See, you raise the moon, that's good!"

"Our sister can do that already."

"But…not as good as you can…I think." Great job Gareth.

"Let's try something factual." Lily said pulling her journal out and sitting next to Luna, "I'm sure there's one pony you trust."

"Sister."

"There you go, your sister Celestia is trustworthy, even if she sent you to the moon for a thousand years."

"Not helping Lily." I said dragging her backwards. Luna just sat there absorbed in her game as we talked to her trying to convince her; as I sat down next to her I watched as she played her game, she was playing an old classic, StarPony 64 an old space shooter that was well received by fans.

"I remember this game. How far in are you?"

"Going up against the rival group."

"Have you tried doing a backwards flip when you're being tailed?"

"We have but they continue to tail my teammates once I break free."

"I had that problem, save your missiles and use them when they tail your friends. It does a lot of damage and they can't avoid them because they're tailing."

"Really?" She switched up her tactic and started hitting planes that tailed her allies doing very effective damage, "Huzzah! Thank you Soren you have improved my abilities immensely!" She gave a look of surprise and cleared her throat, "Sorry, you have improved OUR skills."

"You don't have to be formal Princess Luna." She gave a nod and smile; good she was opening up.

"I am willing to give you a chance, what shall we do now?" That was a good question actually; hmm…

We took a walk through the castle garden enjoying the open air with Luna; apparently she hasn't been out in a few months and how she was squinting from the sunlight made it very clear.

"It has been a while since we have been out in the sunlight; I missed the morning garden and the flower scents." She took a deep whiff of the garden and I took a look around noticing it was emptier than I remember it ever being; Gareth tapped my shoulder pointing to the edge of the garden where ponies were standing and glaring at Luna as she sniffed the flowers with a smile on her face, even some of the guards were on edge while looking at Luna. I kept an eye on them as Alice, Lily and Luna looked at the flowers and Luna even introduced some new plants for Lily to write about; out of the corner of my eye I saw as a knight got closer with a blade in his magic and I moved in front of him.

"Don't even think about it!" I said throwing him an intimidating glare.

"That's Nightmare Moon! She's not trustworthy!"

"No! That's Princess Luna and if you try anything I will not hesitate to take you down!"

"You would dare stand up to a knight!?" Our argument had caught the attention of everyone else as they gathered around us.

"Just because you're a knight doesn't give you license to attack those you think are a threat! Especially Princess Luna! Knight's code: Rule #15: No matter what a knight will never attack innocent ponies!"

"Nightmare Moon is not innocent!"

"That is NOT Nightmare Moon! It's Princess Luna!"

"Same thing!"

"NO IT'S NOT!"

"Soren!" I turned to see my friends behind me each with a look of determination.

"You think numbers will help you against a knight? I'd like to see you try!"

"You're the worst knight ever!" Alice yelled getting riled up.

"I won't back down from a challenge!" Gareth said stomping his hooves into the ground.

"I…I won't let you t-t-t-talk about Luna that way!" Lily said nervously stepping next to us.

"Standing by Nightmare Moon; you're all traitors!" As we argued a wingbeat caught our attention and I looked to see Luna had flown off towards her tower entering her balcony window, "And stay up there Nightmare Moon, no one want you around." With a slam of her window she disappeared back into her room; that's it! I dove forward knocking the colt over and tussling with him as my friends tried to help but our rolling around made it a fight against just each other; with the upper hand he knocked me back and finished the fight, "Is that all you've got?" I stood up and pulled my practice blade out of my coat and rushed at him; he swung his blade as I double jumped over him and hit him from behind knocking him forward, when he rolled over I brought the wood to his throat and he froze dropping his blade onto the grass.

"We're done here." I said putting the wooden blade back in my coat; suddenly his horn lit up and the blade swung forward flying at me, before it hit me a hoof knocked his head making him lose concentration and drop his blade, I looked up to see Alice had knocked him out with a huff.

"I think that's all we're going to be able to do right now." She was right; Luna wasn't coming out of her room anytime soon so there wasn't anything else we could do today.

"What now?" Gareth asked.

"We'll stay at my old place, it's actually near here."

We left the castle and headed for the nearby knights training ground where a shack was set up with a lock on the door; pulling out a key I turned the lock opening the door to a small area where a bed was set up in the far corner.

"This place is empty." Gareth said tapping the walls as they creaked.

"Careful, those cave in if you aren't careful." I said pushing the bed as it squeaked; just like old times.

"You lived here?" Alice said with a hint of disbelief in her tone.

"Canterlot is expensive to live in, even as the knight's captain's protégé I had to find a place to stay that was cheap.

"You mean free?"

"…Yes. Anyway it'll do for tonight. We'll try to coax Luna out of her room tomorrow."

"She's not going to trust any pony after what happened in the garden." Lily said sighing.

"We have to try." I said thinking deeply, "What made you three trust me in the Everfree forest?" They all took a moment to think and then shrugged; great, now I don't even have an example I could use to convince her, this was not going to be easy.

…? As I slept I heard a voice sing from beyond the shed doors; it was beautiful and sung a song of sadness and regret with a melody of loneliness and regret; it was soothing but made me feel like I was going to cry as I listened to it. It was Luna's voice; it was beautiful to listen to but sad to hear, all of her pain was being told in her tone and as she sung I could feel myself drifting into the land of sleep.

"Soren." I stood up straight at attention to see Luna standing there in front of me.

"Luna? What are you doing…here?" I looked around to see I wasn't in my shack and was now in a strange dark forest which didn't seem to fit into our world…this must be Princess Luna's dream world; the moon was large and full as we stood under it.

"Welcome to our dream, knight Soren, we wanted to apologize for rushing back to our room so suddenly. It was uncouth of a princess to do so."

"No princess, I'm sorry I let that fellow knight speak so badly about you. It sickens me to think that he's a knight!"

"…You really care about the knight code don't you?"

"Of course, I trained to become a knight with the code close to my heart because I wanted to defend those who couldn't defend themselves. I read every story about the challenges Equestria faced and trained to become strong to protect others; but it wasn't until I saw a rainbow blast through the sky that I realized that Equestria has wonders that can only be found in this land, so I wanted to protect this land with so many great ponies and wonders. So when I was old enough I signed up for the knights training test; it wasn't easy but I made it through by the skin of my flank and moved to Canterlot to be part of the Royal Guard training camp."

"Your cutie mark is unique; I'm interested in how it appeared. Did you get it when you passed the knight's test?"

"No, I didn't get it until I read the Knight's charter rulebook."

"The rulebook?"

"One rule in particular. Knight's charter Rule #27: Knight's will carefully choose who they trust."

"Really?"

"Well that was the start of my thought process but then I saw Shinning Armor; he was the captain of the royal guards and my personal trainer. When he took me on everyone was amazed, even me; I was literally the only pony who didn't have their cutie mark and with how old I was it was kind of embarrassing.

"So why did he choose you?"

"That's what I asked him and you know what he told me?"

"What?"

"Potential isn't in what you already see but what can be made out of what you can't see yet. Then I asked why he trusted me with such potential."

"How did he reply?"

"He told me that knights are to be wary with their trust but if he doesn't give me a chance then he'll be showing that he has no trust at all."

"That's very different advice."

"You're telling me but that made me think and I realized that if I want to protect others I have to gain their trust by trusting them. So that night I made an addendum to that rule; Knight's charter Rule #27 Soren edition: Knights should be open with their trust; to protect what we care about we must earn trust and give it in return. Once I added the period to that sentence my cutie mark shinned onto my flank and I knew that my destiny was to be a knight…or at least I thought it was; after what happened with Nightmare Moon I'm not so sure anymore."

"…I'm sorry about that."

"No, it's okay; it wasn't you who tried to plunge the world into darkness."

"But it was I caused so much suffering and harm."

"No you didn't, Luna you aren't Nightmare Moon and even if you are I have to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"You helped me get in touch with my cutie mark ability and introduced me to my trustworthy friends. I say that's two reasons to thank you."

"Soren…I'm not worth trusting. What if I become Nightmare Moon again?"

"You became Nightmare Moon because you felt like ponies didn't appreciate you, didn't love you, and didn't trust you. I want to make sure that never happens again so I'm going to trust you and I want you to do the same for me."

"How?"

"I'm going to become your knight!"

"What!?"

"As a knight of Equestria I have a duty to protect the princess, you are a princess so I'm going to become your first knight! I trust you not to turn back into Nightmare Moon; do you trust me to be your knight?" She teared up for a minute before nodding her head.

"Thank you Soren, my knight of the moon."

"You're welcome Princess Luna."

"Please, call me Luna."

The next day we all stood at the train station as ponies started boarding the train.

"You're not coming back with us!?" Lily said surprised at what I said; I had told the gang I was staying to watch over Princess Luna as a Knight of the Moon.

"I thought it was a temporary stay?" Alice asked.

"So did I but I was able to get her to trust me by becoming her first Knight and as her only knight I can't leave her alone."

"But you'll come back right?" Gareth asked and I gave a shrug.

"You better come back! I need my enchantment tester!" Alice yelled at me, "And I don't trust anyone else to test them!"

"And I need my rival! No one else can match me in town!"

"I still need so much more data on you Soren, I know that there's more to you than just what I've got!"

"You have great friends Soren." I turned to see Luna and Princess Celestia standing there.

"Luna! I was just on my way back."

"Do not worry Soren; in fact I want you to go back to Ponyville."

"Really? Why?"

"It was astonishing." Celestia started, "Luna came to me more excited than when she was on Hearth's warming Eve as a filly about you becoming her first knight."

"Sister!" Luna said with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"But as we talked a large group of knights came in and requested to become part of Luna's guard."

"Really?" I asked stunned, "Did they seem suspicious?"

"That's why I asked them why they wanted to become part of her guard and they gave a very peculiar answer. They all shared a dream in which they saw a blue colt in a black coat become Luna's knight with a very inspiring speech that even won them over."

"They all apologized for how they acted to me and I was a bit skeptical of their shared dream and then Shinning Armor came to me and told me about changing a certain rule which he approved." Luna said handing me a knight's charter book; I flipped through it until I came to rule 27: Knights should be open with their trust; to protect what we care about we must earn trust and give it in return.

"It's the rule I told Luna!"

"Did you ever tell anyone else about this rule?" Luna asked.

"Nobody except Shining Armor but he was the only other one."

"He was surprised they heard it to, he's tried having it replaced but without the backup to push it through…until now."

"Wow…but how did they get into our dream?"

"That's what I was wondering as well."

"I think I might know how." Celestia said cutting in and pointing to my cutie mark, "I think your ability took Luna's power and stretched it to every pony in Canterlot. Even I saw that conversation."

"Everybody had that dream!?" I said shocked; I looked back at Alice, Gareth and Lily who all nodded.

"I thought it was a strange dream." Gareth said with a chuckle.

"It seemed strange that I was in a dark moonlit forest." Lily said in deep thought.

"It wasn't the same people I usually spend my dream with." Alice said looking away.

"I really need to get a hold on this ability." I said looking down at my flank with a sigh.

"It did well this time. Just like I knew you would." Celestia said looking at me, "You came through just like I knew you would. I knew I could trust you."

"As I do now." Luna added.

"I have a question." We all turned to Alice, "If Soren is now a knight of the moon does that mean he's no longer Celestia's knight?" That…is actually a good question.

"No, Soren is a Knight of Equestria. As such he is given the ability to give his dedication to any Princess he chooses so he may be both my knight and Luna's knight."

"Did you know this Soren?" Lily asked.

"Didn't have a clue." I answered and they chuckled

"I didn't tell you because I wanted to see how far you would go to display your trust and I'm sure that Shining Armor would be proud to know that you have lived up to the rule you made." As we talked I heard a train whistle and turned to see the train coming into the station.

"I'll make sure to write to him when I get home." I said as Luna handed me my pack and the four of us boarded the train; as it headed back to Ponyville I waved goodbye to Princess Celestia and Luna and suddenly a piece of paper and pencil floated in front of me, I turned to see Alice, Gareth and Lily giving me a smile; looks like I was writing him back now.

Dear Shining Armor,

I've heard about the rule change and am glad you supported it for so long; it's been interesting living in Ponyville and I've learned that trust doesn't just make a group even bigger it makes it stronger. With my friends helping me I was able to become even stronger and faster and I was able to make them better as well; all together we were able to become better because we trusted each other to make each other better. I hope to learn even more from them and become the best knight in Equestria; after all I've got even more to protect and even more of a reason to become better.

Your Protégé,

Soren


	9. A starting point

"All right that's all I need." Alice said writing down the faults with her latest design; I took a quick look around to see a green dress on a ponyquin, seemed like a work in progress but it had to be Rarity's work, Alice wouldn't touch formal wear with a ten foot pole.

"What's this?" I asked catching Alice's attention.

"When Rarity heard I was going to the Gala she made me take a lesson from her in making a dress."

"Hopefully a quick lesson."

"I wish. She made me listen to her color and threading instruction as well as proper pattern cutting and stitching threading. It was like she was teaching me from scratch all over again. It was nightmarish." Looking at the dress it was kind of plain and less flashy then I expected Rarity to allow…kind of looks like something Twilight might wear, plain is her style.

"I'm guessing she hasn't seen this yet?"

"Luckily; I just have to hide it until the night of the Gala."

"The Gala is still a few weeks away; I doubt you can hide it that long."

"Ugh…what about you, do you have a suit for the Gala?"

"I was just going to wear this." I replied pointing to my coat.

"It's a formal event and you want to wear that? Are you crazy?"

"Says the girl with the plain green dress."

"At least it's something, you need a suit." As she said that she grabbed the tape measure and started taking my measurements.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to make you a suit for the Gala, with only a few weeks to the Gala you need one…you and probably Gareth…I should make a dress for Sukia and Lily as well."

"Getting a little too excited there?" With that she gave and embarrassed laugh and pushed me out the door.

"I've got work to do so you go somewhere else, thanks for the help by the way."

"No problem…I recommend getting Rarity's help with making formal wear."

"No thanks, I don't feel like getting an ear full on proper style and fashion." She gave a groan and shiver, "See you later." She closed the door to the boutique leaving me outside; guess that's it for the day…wonder what everyone else is doing?

I headed to the Golden Oak library and entered to see Twilight busy with a potion experiment as Spike puled books off the shelf and put some back with Twilight's command; suddenly Spike began to fall back off the ladder, dashing forward with a glide he dropped onto my back with a soft thump.

"You okay Spike?" I asked and he gave a nod.

"Thanks, that ladder isn't very secure." He replied rubbing his head.

"Might be a lose screw in the mechanism." Twilight said as she scribbled notes of her experiment onto parchment, "What brings you here Soren?"

"I was just wondering what you two were doing."

"Well I was just trying to come up with a brand new concoction for making apples grow faster."

"How is that going?"

"Not as well as I hoped it would…I don't think Apple Jack would use it."

"She might personally destroy it." Spike said snidely at which Twilight gave him a glare. At that moment we heard a loud explosion and turned to see her apple concoction had taken a chunk of the table apart in the explosion.

"Looks like it did it itself." I said making Spike chuckle; as we stood there I heard a loud grumbling sound and looked to see it was coming from Twilight's stomach, "How long have you been working?"

"I…skipped breakfast." Twilight said embarrassed.

"Let's get lunch, I could eat." We headed over to a nearby restaurant and I ordered a fried wheat sandwich while Twilight ordered a daisy and hay sandwich; as we ate I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Applebloom, Scootalo and Sweeetiebell standing behind me, "Cutie Mark Curaders, what do you need?"

"Have you seen Rainbow Dash? We're looking for her cutie mark story." Scootalo asked.

"Really? Why?"

"We've tried everything we know but haven't come and closer to finding our talent."

"Well if you need a story then I think every story would help you in your quest." I turned to Twilight as she finished her sandwich, "How about Twilight's story?" She gave a big excited smile and the Crusaders sat down and listened, "You guys have fun. I think I'll head out." With that I scarfed down my fried sandwich and walked off towards…I'm not sure where.

Deciding that it was a nice day out I headed for the park and watched as Fluttershy and Sukia were trying to pull ducklings out of the main fountain; Fluttershy kept trying to coax the out while Sukia was trying to pull them to her with her song but to no avail. Trotting over I decided to help and started gathering up ducklings into my wings placing them onto my back; with all of them on my back I hopped out of the fountain and Fluttershy and Sukia moved over to me.

"Thanks Soren, I have to get the ducklings back to their pond but they didn't want to leave the fountain."

"They seem to like your back." Sukia said poking her hoof into my side.

"It's my wings; I don't use them much so the feathers are very soft." I answered extending my wings, "I don't mind helping get them back."

"Thank you, it's just over here." Fluttershy motioned to a nearby path and Sukia and I followed behind; I wonder how Twilight's story went with the Crusaders…cutie marks…

"Hey Sukia, how did you get your cutie mark?" She gave me a giggle and turned to look at her cutie mark with a look of nostalgia in her eyes.

"Well it was actually a play for Ponyville. I was playing as back-up for the female lead in the foals play and back then my voice wasn't as alluring and enticing as it is now. Back then I didn't even have any interest in singing; I actually wanted to be an actress. To show my amazing acting ability to the world and give them a show they would never forget, but as an understudy I was stuck watching in the back and only reserved for when the lead was unable to act. The main actress was also the picture of health; she had never missed a day of class and never came down with even a cough which meant I wasn't going to get my chance to act at all. But a few days before the night of the play a rainbow shot across the sky with a bang and it happened during our rehearsal, the amazing thing was that it spooked the lead actress and completely took her voice away. She wouldn't get it back for at least a week which meant it was my time to shine…relatively speaking of course, Rarity came back a few days later with beautifully made costumes that sparkled and shinned, I was excited to act with all my heart. Then the night of the play came along and I was so excited to preform; unfortunately I wasn't as good an actress as I though, I fumbled my lines and couldn't emote as well as I believed. The play was a disaster for the beginning of it all, we even lost a few ponies in the back, but then it came around to our first musical number and when I opened my voice to sing everybody in the audience gasped in amazement at my voice, I sang my heart out as everyone's eyes were glued to me. When I was done singing they wanted an encore and then an encore for that encore and it went on like that; I realized then and there that I had a gift for singing that entranced creatures of all kinds and made them happy, I couldn't just let it pass me there and upon that realization my cutie mark flowed onto my flank and stood there and from then on I've been using my voice to help out whoever I can in town. I mostly help Fluttershy with animals but I'm still glad to help how I can, it's my talent after all."

"That's an amazing story." I said and she giggled.

"Well it's all thanks to that sudden rainbow bang I had my opportunity to find out my talent was in my voice. It's the reason I'm still in this town."

"Well I'm glad then, without you I would feel like I'd be missing an important friend from my life."

"That's sweet Soren…thanks."

"Here we are." Fluttershy said motioning to a small pond where ducks were currently floating across the water; I slowly extended my wing and the ducklings waddled off my back onto the grass and slowly floated out to the middle of the pond to the rest of the ducks, "Goodbye little ducklings, be safe." They gave a quack and moved away, "Thanks for the help Soren."

"No problem, it was fun. Thanks for the story Sukia."

"Anytime. Now I've got to go find my sister, it's time for our weekly spa visit. I'd rather not have a dirty mane…why don't you come with me?"

"Oh no, I'm…not a spa pony."

"Nonsense dear the spa is for everyone." I looked to see Rarity was standing there.

"Gah! What are you doing here?" I asked surprised by her appearance.

"Fluttershy and I have our spa day set up and I came to meet up with her here and it looks like we have a fifth joining us today." She said slightly excited, "We should do something about that scruffy mane of yours." She started messing with my mane so I backed up re-ruffling it, "I have got a look for you that would be perfect!"

"Isn't being Alice's experiment tester enough?" I said backing up as she eyed me up and down in deep thought before giving a look of realization.

"I've got just the thing!" With that she grabbed me and dragged me to Celestia knows where.

"This is degrading." I said as Rarity ran a comb through my mane pulling my head back as it got caught in my various tangles.

"How ghastly, it's like a spider web of hair. We're going to need a stronger comb." As she put her hoof out one of the spa ponies came over and put a steel comb into her hoof; as I felt it go through my mane I cringed as it tore through the knots with enough force that I think it took a few chunks of hair. Once she had finished combing my hair she pulled me over and stuck my head under a faucet soaking it; one of the spa ponies started rubbing conditioners and shampoos through it with a grim look on their face.

"Is something wrong?" I asked and Rarity gave a nervous laugh.

"Soren dear don't take this the wrong way but…have you ever washed your mane?" I took a moment to look at the sink to see the water they ran through my hair was a much darker color than even swamp water.

"I guess it's been a few…years." Rarity and the spa pony gave a look of shock at my lack of mane care.

"We're going to need every pony!" The spa pony yelled as every staff member gathered around me; suddenly at felt like I was strapped down as various ponies began messing with my hair and bickering about how to approach the problem they faced…which was, strangely enough, me. Eventually they figured out how to approach it and lathered it with some sort of strange shampoo and conditioner, when the water stopped running black they gave a sigh of relief and moved me into a lying chair next to Fluttershy and Lily smearing a strange cream on my face and cucumbers on my eyes.

"This seems like something more for girls than boys." I said in the darkness as I sat there.

"Darling, proper skin and hair care is for everyone. Besides if you're going to the Gala then I refuse to let a friend go in such a…hillbilly fashion." As insulting as she tried to avoid making it sound that wasn't any better; I sat back deciding that fighting it wasn't going to help me at all and a chance to relax didn't come around often.

"Ahhh…it's nice to unwind every now and again." Lily said as she unwound into her chair…I think…it's hard to see anything with these cucumbers on my eyes.

"Oh Fluttershy have you heard what the Cutie Mark Crusaders are doing today?" Rarity asked.

"They came to me asking about my cutie mark story." Fluttershy responded.

"They asked me as well, it's adorable to see them working so hard. I'm so proud of my sister." Rarity said with a sense of pride in her voice; so they even asked Rarity and Fluttershy about their cutie marks…they've really been working hard at it since they formed.

"Hey Lily?" I turned to Lily taking of the cucumbers, "How did you get your cutie mark?" When I asked that her eyes went wide and she looked away nervously.

"Oh…it's not that good a story r-really." She replied as her face turned red.

"Well I would still like to hear it." I said and her face turned even redder.

"Oh…w-well okay. If you insist then I'll t-tell you." With that she took a deep breath and suddenly the cucumbers were put back on my eyes.

"Leave them on dear otherwise your eyes might get horrible crow's feet." Rarity said pushing me back down.

"Continue Lily." I said with a sigh laying back into a comfortable position.

"W-Well when I was a foal in school I had a small problem with my test scores; I could never remember the information as well as I wanted to and it showed with how bad I did. Luckily for me on my birthday I got a journal for my birthday; I wrote in it every day putting down the events of the day. In that moment I realized that when I was writing everything down I remembered it in amazing detail; from then on I started taking notes for tests and history lessons. But it wasn't anything interesting for me, it was all information that was either known in a book or known by every pony already; it was all just rerecording work I had already heard. I know it helped my memory but it didn't feel enjoyable. But then one day as I was writing in my journal a rainbow exploded across the sky in a giant boom; it was so amazing and spectacular that I had to write down how it looked felt and what I experienced in the moment of it. That didn't just end there though, I wanted to share this feeling with everyone else I knew and so I rushed off to tell everyone else; as I tried to tell them they gave me confused looks, I obviously wasn't doing as well as I could. Thinking about it I then grabbed my journal and showed them my explanation of what I saw; from what I wrote down their eyes lit up as they scanned the page, once they were done they had the same look of wonder and amazement I had while looking at it. It was in that moment I realized that I was great at writing down things in great detail but rewriting information wasn't giving me any joy but as I wrote about that rainbow blast I not only felt wonder because it was amazing but because it was new. It was information that I had never seen before and to share that information in detail only I could write down filled me with glee. Then I decided that I wanted to write down as much new information as I could and share it with every pony to not only increase the knowledge in Equestria but to explain one time experiences so everyone can enjoy them. With that resolve my cutie mark just appeared on my flank. From then on I've worked towards cataloging every pony I meet as well as every new town, land and experience I find."

"That's amazing…so all that info has fit into one book?"

"No, I keep multiple books; I u-usually just carry around a book specified for ponies b-but I also have one for towns, forests, and records." Wow.

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg." Sukia added with a giggle.

"Sukia…" Lily replied obviously embarrassed.

"I've got it!" I heard Rarity yell excited, "A dark blue would do great for your mane Soren." Oh no.

After getting Rarity to give up on turning my mane a different color I finished up my spa visit and stepped outside as a Pegasus crashed into the ground in front of me digging into the dirt; only one pony could crash that hard and fast.

"Ditzy I told you, walk before you fly." I said helping her up and brushing the dirt out of her mane as she gave me a big smile.

"Sorry but I needed to hurry to Sweet Apple Acres to deliver this package." Ditzy replied holding up a slightly ruffled cardboard box with the sounds of something broken inside; Sweet Apple Acres…I guess I could visit Gareth today.

"I'll get it there; you head back and take a break." I said taking the package from her hooves.

"Okay, just don't break what's inside." She said walking away; kind of hard to do when it's already broken by the sound of it. Walking towards the Apple farm I took a moment to look up at the sky and think about the rainbow blast that I've heard about from Sukia's and Lily's stories; it sounds just like the rainbow blast I saw as a foal before I decided to become a knight. Lost in thought I didn't see as some pony jumped in front of me and I bumped into them; looking up I saw I had bumped into Applejack who was looking around franticly with an angry look on her face.

"Sorry Soren, I'm after some thieving varmints, why are you here?"

"I have a package to deliver." I said holding out the box; she took it with a confused look on her face and opened it up, looking inside I was surprised to find two pairs of horseshoes; so that's what made all that clanking noise, I thought whatever was inside was broken.

"Good, our horseshoes are here, now me and Bigmac can start plowing the fields to plant crops." She said slightly cheered up; suddenly Gareth came out of the orchard scanning the area before giving a sigh.

"I can't find those bunnies anywhere." Gareth said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"I'd get Fluttershy, she can probably lure the bunnies out." I said trying to help.

"Good idea, where is she?"

"Still at the spa with Rarity, Sukia and Lily."

"How do you know that?"

"…No reason, just an idea…I'd still check there first." I replied trying to get them off the spa topic; I'd rather Gareth doesn't know I was at the spa today.

"I'll go get her, you wait here and be ready to pounce on some rabbits." Applejack said heading off towards town.

"I'll be ready, manual work is what I do best!" What Gareth does best…

"Hey Gareth how did you get your cutie mark?" I asked and he looked down at his flank before giving me a big smile.

"That's a great story. It's when I became the great pony I am today."

"Then would you mind sharing it with me?" I asked trying to get him to just tell it.

"When I was little I was kind of useless; couldn't do anything right for anybody. Every skill I tried I failed at; drawing, spelling bees, quizzes, crafting and so on. I even tried some of the more…feminine skills; sewing, macramé, cooking, nothing seemed to fit me at all. I didn't want to give up though, I wanted to help other ponies, but a slew of bad luck followed my every failure to the point I decided that until I knew what I could do well I wouldn't try, after all it would eventually find me. I eventually just tried doing nothing…even that ended badly, I couldn't sit in one place without causing some kind of problem…but then one day as class was cleaning up and had stacked a bunch of boxes into a big stack; I was told to sit in a corner for fear I might mess something up. But as they cleaned a giant rainbow explosion shot across the sky; the force of the blast knocked over that stack of boxes right on to the ponies under it. In that moment I had to act fast and moved to pull the boxes off the ponies in need; I stripped the boxes off of the ponies so fast that when the fire ponies showed up I had already taken care of the problem. I realized that all of the skills I tried were more mental but my prowess was in my strength; I knew now that I could help out ponies by using my strength to help them out; from woodwork to blacksmithing and even apple bucking. With that realization this dirty horseshoe cutie mark popped up assuring my fate as a handyman for any physical task; pretty cool story right?"

"So you saw a rainbow blast?"

"Yep, it was awesome and made my fate!" So he saw the rainbow blast to; there's an interesting pattern happening here.

"I'm back!" We turned to see Applejack and Fluttershy walking back up the path, "All right Fluttershy, you think you can corral the critters?"

"I don't know but I'm happy to help as best as I can." Fluttershy replied in her passive way.

"Let's grab 'em then!" Gareth said bolting off as Applejack and Flutershy tried catching up. Guess they've got that covered…I think I'll head back to Alice and see how she's doing.

I walked into the boutique to see Rarity and Alice looking over different articles of clothing; from ties and dress shirts as well as hair bows and cloth patterns, it looks like they were trying to put something together.

"That color is awful! How about a nice royal purple?" Rarity suggested'

"He doesn't look good in purple though, it clashes with his brown body…besides, it's a tuxedo; black is a must." Alice said.

"Then we should at least have some adornment to it."

"Why?"

"I believe that there should be some sense of style, even for a colt."

"Then why not add a small patch to the suite." I said surprising both of them.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" Alice said hitting me on the head, "When did you get here?"

"A few seconds ago, how's the tailoring going?"

"Dreadful, will you look at this?" Rarity said dramatically pointing to the suit.

"…What's wrong with it?" I asked and she gasped.

"It's not a problem!" Alice yelled at Rarity.

"It absolutely is! I mean just look at it." I squinted trying to find out what she was talking about but no matter how hard I looked or at what angle I looked I couldn't for the life of me find what was wrong with it…maybe it's because I'm a colt.

"Let's move on, Soren what patch would work best for Gareth's suite?" For Gareth…

"How about stitching a symbol into the coat?" I said and she gave it some thought.

"That's not bad…but what symbol?"

"Well for personal fling I would say make it his cutie mark?"

"All right, that could work…but I'm going to need a look at his cutie mark." As she contemplated out loud I heard a crash at the door surprising all of us and making Rarity shriek; opening it up I was surprised to see Dash with Pinkie and the twins behind her.

"Dash?" As I looked at her she got up shaking her and nervously laughed.

"Sorry about that, I was trying to get some more speed so I had Pinkie and the twins shoot me from a slingshot, unfortunately the trajectory was more…horizontal then I expected."

"That was awesome, you went so fast Dash! Right guys?" Pinkie said turning to Denys and Penny who gave a nod; she's actually got some control over them? That's actually pretty amazing for even Pinkie to do.

"Are you okay Rainbow Dash?" I looked out to see Lily approaching with a worried look on her face.

"I'm fine, just a small bruise." Dash said rubbing her head.

"Maybe we should go 45 degrees higher." Lily pulled out a small clipboard jotting down something, most likely about the slingshot…Lily's journal!

"Hey Lily?" I said getting her attention, "Can I get your help with something?"

"What do you need Soren?"

"Do you have a sketch of Gareth's cutie mark?"

"I have a sketch of everyone's cutie mark I've seen." She pulled out her journal flipping to Gareth's page and showing me the sketch of his cutie mark…it's eerily accurate.

"That's really good detail." I said genuinely impressed at which she blushed.

"Thanks…w-what did you need it for?"

"Alice needed a look at Gareth's cutie mark for a symbol. Would you mind going and helping her?"

"Sure." We headed inside as Dash, Pinkie and the twins went back to their slingshot; Lily handed over the journal and Alice began to stitch pulling different fabrics together with a look of glee on her face.

"Enjoying yourself?" I said teasing her and she gave me an eye roll as she continued working; this was the first set of clothes that Alice worked on that she wasn't going to enchant, this must be new ground for her…or is it, "Hey Alice how did you get your cutie mark?"

"Why the question?"

"He's been asking everyone; Gareth, Sukia, even me." Lily said as she sat down.

"Well…I suppose a story would pass the time. All right, I'll tell you. When I was just a foal I had always been interested in clothing; I grew up in Ponyville and liked to roam the town and as I did I always noticed that some ponies needed better work clothes or…work clothes at all. So I put my all into creating great pieces of clothing that could weather the rough work and last for a while; eventually I was able to create clothes but I didn't feel like I was doing as well as I could. Even though I was still a foal people liked my work and came to me for repairs on things yet I felt like I could do better than that, I felt like I could add something to my clothes but I didn't know how. Then while working on a new piece of clothing a rainbow shot across the sky in a blast; suddenly my magic went out of control and I shot a beam at the coat enveloping it in powerful magic. When the magic finally died I looked to see the coat was lying on the ground; picking it up I felt an energy vibrating off it and noticed that it had fallen in the mud but was spotless. I dipped it in mud again and watched as every piece of mud slid off leaving the coat spotless; somehow my magic had enchanted the coat with properties that kept it clean regardless of stains. Realizing what happened I found exactly what I wanted to add to my clothes so I poured myself into finding out everything I could about enchanting, when my first line of stain proof uniforms came out they were a big hit with the local flower seller. After that I knew I wanted to enchant clothing making it much more durable and useful, I knew that I wanted to create great clothing with even greater enchantments that made people feel like they were useful and helpful. With that realization the cutie mark you see just appeared on my flank in a flash; I then partnered with Rarity to become better at creating clothes and get even more people clothes that they need, Rarity has some pretty famous clients so people from out of town come quiet often and have me create clothing for their job or for themselves that was great for the situation they needed."

"That's amazing." I said and she smiled.

"Well thanks. Hey can you hand me your coat?" She asked and I handed over my coat as she began sewing, "Lily can I see your journal for a minute?" Lily walked over and they huddled in blocking my view; great to know I'm going to just have to wait to see what she's doing. I sat down waiting for them to finish and thought about the rainbow blast in everyone's story; even though I'm glad that we all have something that connects us together I wonder what caused that rainbow shockwave in the first place?

"So you saw it too Alice?" Rarity said in surprise.

"What do you mean 'too' Rarity?" I asked.

"Well the girls all saw it when they got their cutie marks and we learned that it was caused by Rainbow Dash creating a sonic rainboom." So Dash created our source of inspiration?

"That's actually pretty cool." I said and suddenly my coat was thrown at me.

"It kind of is." Alice said with a giggle as I put my coat on; looking on the inside of my coat I noticed that Alice had sewn two symbols on it; one of Celestia's cutie mark and one of Luna's cutie mark.

"Why did you put these in?"

"Don't want you forgetting who you're fighting for…right?" Alice said shyly…she's right.

"Then would you mind putting everyone else's cutie mark in as well. You're my friends so you're worth protecting." As I said that she gave a look of surprise then a smile.

"Sure." She said taking back my coat and working on the other patches; I looked at the formal clothes she made to see they actually looked pretty nice; guess even without enchantments she makes some pretty awesome clothes. Thinking about it I've made some pretty great friends while I've been here and I don't want to forget them; I want to make sure that they will always be there and that makes them worth protecting.

"Here you go." Alice handed me back my cloak with Gareth's, Lily's, Sukia's and her cutie mark under the princesses' symbols; I'm definitely never taking this cloak off!

"Thanks a lot Alice, we're going to have to thank Dash for her rainboom later." Once I said that I heard a loud crash from upstairs and the sound of Rainbow Dash groaning in pain. Alice gave a small giggle.

"Provided she doesn't destroy the boutique."


	10. A night of fun and friends

"Soren come on! We're supposed to meet everyone at Rarity's boutique to get ready for the gala!" Gareth banged against me door as I grabbed my coat and opened it taking a hoof to the face as he wasn't done knocking, "Oh…sorry." He gave a nervous chuckle and I gave a small laugh.

"You are too excited man. I thought you would hate fancy parties." I said closing the door behind me as we headed towards Rarity's boutique; it was definitely going to be a fun night, I was going to see Shinning Armor for the first time in months and catch up with the news of Canterlot.

"Well these parties are full of bigwigs and ponies with connections. I can use my freelancer labor work to help ponies that need help and make a nice bag of bits in the process, maybe two bags if I'm lucky." He dreams big, well I suppose some ponies go to the Gala for different reasons and if he wants to do that he'll find a way, either way I'm sure we'll all have fun. As we approached the boutique everyone else was beginning to gather up around Rarity, Pinkie, Twilight and Alice; looks like Twilight was working on a spell. As she closed the book she focused her magic on a nearby apple as it shifted and expanded turning into a giant carriage; so that's what we're going to the gala in, as everyone gave a gasp of amazement Fluttershy put down four mice and Twilight started using her magic on them. They shifted and expanded like the apple and turned into…fancy…mutant…horse-mice?

"I don't think that works Twilight." Alice said giving a look of grimace at the creatures.

"Well I'm sure it'll be fine. They turn back to mice at the end of the night so this should work." Twilight said trying to convince everyone…and I think herself; suddenly there was a squeak and we turned to see the mice running off with Opal on their tail.

"Any other ideas?" Sukia asked giggling and Twilight blushed in embarrassment.

"We can do that for you girls." I said pointing to me and Gareth who nodded in agreement.

"Thank you boys, you are true gentlemen." Rarity said in sincere thanks, "Come girls let us get ready."

"All right, come on Soren, Gareth I finished your suits yesterday." Alice said as we all headed into the boutique; Alice led us into her workshop and pulled out a stand revealing two suits and three dresses. The suits were plain black with pants and suit with and white undershirt and black bowtie, the only difference between the two was the stitching in the collars with one depicting my cutie mark and the other depicting Gareth's. The dresses were much more personalized with the Alice's green dress having a plain light green pattern from neck to flank with a deep green fabric draping down the back legs and green shoes…Alice has always been function over style anyway. Lily's dress was a white piece with a book and quill hairpin; Sukia's dress was a deep crimson red with a song note clip near the neck; at least she got color coordination right, "Soren I have a small problem."

"What is it Alice?"

"Your cloak."

"What about it?"

"You're wearing it; I refuse to let you go to the Gala in that same old thing."

"But it's my cloak, I don't go anywhere without it."

"Well good thing I enchanted your suit with a pocket dimension and that cloak is light so it shouldn't weigh you down."

"You enchanted formal wear?" Lily asked amazed at her dedication.

"Of course!" Alice said excited, "Soren's has a magic pocket, Gareth's has a sweat pocket, Lily's has stain remover since it's white and Sukia's has a de-wrinkle enchantment to keep it smooth."

"Think you went overboard?" Gareth asked.

"No way, I only did one enchantment a piece so that's good for me." Alice said defensively.

"Considering her usual work that's actually pretty good." I said knowing best about this since I'm her enchantment tester; usually she would put three or four on them for a little extra kick but I'm guessing she was a bit strained to not put enchantments on these pieces.

"The pieces are plainer than I expected." Lily said examining them.

"I'm surprised Rarity let you get away with this." Sukia said picking up her dress with her magic and moving up the stairs.

"Trust me, it wasn't easy." Alice replied with a sigh as she and Lily followed behind her; as Gareth and I tried to follow I was back kicked by Alice and tumbled down the stairs taking Gareth with me, "You boys get changed down there while we ladies will get changed upstairs." As I stood back up Spike passed by me going up the stairs and past Alice who kept her eyes on us.

"What about Spike?" I asked.

"He's a dragon." Alice stated but it didn't really feel like an explanation.

"That's not a good explanation." Gareth said and she gave a shrug before walking back up the stairs; with a sigh we started putting on our tuxedoes and I placed my coat into the inner pocket and straightened my bow tie and looked in a nearby mirror…I didn't look to bad.

"Rather dashing Soren and Gareth." Looking behind me I saw Rarity looking at us.

"I thought you and the girls were changing upstairs?" Gareth said scratching his mane.

"Well I realized that you two are going to go out with…those manes…so I thought I would help out." She said lifting up a brush with her magic.

"You really have a problem with us not looking our best don't you?" I said stating the fact I knew at this point.

"I really do, next to Rainbow Dash and Applejack you two are…very unkempt." Rarity said with a strained look on her face; every time she tries to sound nice about it that look just gives it away, "Now hold still, this might take a while."

With everyone ready and well-groomed the ladies entered the apple carriage while Gareth and I hooked ourselves up to it and began to pull as the sun set; luckily we still had enough time that when we got there only about half an hour would have passed since the beginning of the Gala meaning we would still have all night to enjoy ourselves.

"I'm so excited to be back in Canterlot during the Gala! Soren, Gareth we should hit Joe's donut shop before the end of the night." Spike said excitedly.

"Joe's donut shop?" Gareth asked confused; I knew where he was talking about though.

"It's a nice little donut shop run by a pony named Joe. He has the best donuts in Canterlot in my opinion; most people would recommend the Royal Pastry Bakery but I enjoy Joe's Donuts Shop more." I explained.

"Sound delicious."

"It is…jelly filled sprinkle…ahhh."

"Spike, you're drooling."

Alice

The carriage bumped along the road as we talked about what we wanted to do at the Gala with the few hours we could spend tonight; seemed everyone had their own agenda for tonight but I couldn't judge them, I had my own thing to do as well.

"What about you Sukia, any big plans?" Fluttershy asked and she went quiet in deep thought.

"Well I personally want to enjoy the sophisticated atmosphere and meet interesting people. It's a party after all." She responded making everyone laugh.

"What about you Lily?" Dash asked and she jumped at the sudden attention.

"Well…it's a place with the most sophisticated of ponies and home to the princesses…I'm going to write down every single detail I can on everything I can!" She hopped up and down excitedly clutching a book marked 'Celestia's Castle' I don't think she'll be socializing tonight.

"And you Alice?" Rarity asked.

"I'm going to spend my time enjoying the party and dancing."

"Dancing with who?" Applejack jabbed into me making me blush as I knew what she was implying.

"Well…maybe I'll get the chance to dance with him." I said looking away as my face was turning redder by the second.

"You'll have a chance; you'll be talking with him throughout the night." What were they talking about, I'll be way too embarrassed to get a chance to dance with let alone talk to him. Suddenly the carriage came to a stop and I looked out the window to see we were outside the castle, we were finally at the Gala.

Soren

With the carriage parked we all stood outside the entrance to the castle where the Gala was hosted every year; Shinning Armor would always tell me about it but this is the first time I'll actually be able to experience it for myself. First thing I have to do though is to find Shinning Armor though and catch up with him on how things have been going and tell him how strong I've gotten in the months I've been gone. Looking around I noticed that everyone had separated heading their own way leaving me and Spike at the entrance; no time to waste, I dashed inside heading towards the main stairs to see Celestia greeting ponies that came in with Twilight standing next to her.

"Soren! Welcome to the Gala." Celestia said as I approached her with a bow, "Come now Soren rise, it's the Gala."

"Oh, well thanks…have you seen Shinning Armor around?" I asked.

"He wasn't able to make it tonight, said he had something very important to do tonight."

"Oh…and I was hoping to spend time with him while I was here." I sulked a little as Celestia put her hoof on my shoulder.

"I'm sure you'll be able to see him in the future, for now enjoy the Gala while you're here."

"Thanks Princess." She gave me a nod and smile and I headed for the ball room; orchestra music was playing from the back as well dressed ponies socialized with each other and talked about matters of politics and high class events…my head hurts just listening to them.

"Soren." I turned to see Luna giving me a gentle smile as she looked down at me, "It is good to see you again."

"Luna! How have you been since I left?"

"Well since then I have amassed a good number of guards to my command, but ever since then they've wondered who else they saw it the shared dream."

"What did you tell them?"

"My first guard, trust me they are still very confused." She gave a giggle at her own joke and I joined in, "But they still want to meet you."

"Why me?"

"You may not know it but since you saved me from the alicorn Shinning Armor and I have been telling that story to every knight in training and they are all very impressed."

"Well…gosh, I never knew that I became so famous." I felt my face turn red as she told me about all the knights that looked up to me.

"Since you're here would you like to dance?" WHAT!? Princess Luna wants to dance with me…well…I guess…ummm.

"S-S-S-Sure…b-b-but I don't k-k-know how t-t-to d-d-d-dance." She laughed and suddenly grabbed my hoof dragging me to the dance floor.

"Don't worry, I'll teach you." She said and we started dancing on the dance floor.

Lily

"This place is amazing!" I said loudly as I looked at every detail of the room with wide eyes; the pillars are made of smooth marble and the floors are tiled with smooth linoleum, the room is ordained and well organized to draw your eye to the stage where the music was coming from and the dance floor where ponies were currently dancing with partners.

"Calm down Lily, your pencil is starting to smoke." Alice said and I looked to see she was right; maybe I should take a break, it's still very amazing; looking over the dance floor my eyes caught Soren stumbling as he danced with…Princess Luna!? Huh…seems Soren doesn't know how to dance; I wrote that down taking note of his jagged and yet wobbly off key movements as Luna laughed happily; I wonder why Luna is dancing with him?

"Is that Soren?" I heard Alice asked and almost swallowed my pencil, "Is he dancing with Princess Luna? Wow and here I thought he couldn't dance…oh wait…he can't."

"You're not mad about that?"

"No, why would I be?"

"…N-Never mind…why is Luna laughing at him though?"

"She's not laughing at him."

"She isn't?" I looked over and as Soren fell to the ground Luna gave another giggle.

"She finds his fumbles and stumbles cute. You can see it in her face." She pointed to her cheeks and as she giggled she had a slight pink to her cheeks; she actually found his inability to dance cute?...I guess a little.

"So are you going to go talk to your crush?" I asked and Alice turned slightly red.

"W-W-Well I don't know where he is." What!? B-B-But he's right there!

"I thought Soren was your crush."

"Soren is my crush and keep it down!" She said covering my mouth with her hoof.

"But he's right there?" I said pointing to Soren as he continued to try to dance with Luna and Alice laughed.

"No…not that Soren, the Wonderbolt's Soarin." So she hasn't had a crush on our Soren…so many notes to erase now, "You thought I had a crush on our Soren? Why would you think that?"

"All you said was that you had a crush on Soren during the sleepover, I t-think everyone else thought that to." She gave a scoff.

"Please, you couldn't pay me to like Soren. I mean yeah he's one of my best friends and an awesome clothes tester but that's it." Alice explained still chuckling, "You're crazy Lily."

"M-Maybe you could be clearer next time." I said and she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.

"Yeah I'll take the blame for that."

"I-If it's a Wonderbolt then i-if we find Rainbow Dash then I'm sure y-you can meet Soarin."

"If it happens it'll happen…b-but let's see if we can find Dash anyway."

Gareth

I flopped down putting my head down on a nearby table; even with all of the ponies enjoying themselves there hasn't been a run out of food, or need of someone to move something from one place to the other, it felt too peaceful compared to ponyville in my opinion.

"Is something wrong Gareth?" I turned my head to see Sukia sitting at the table with a drink.

"Just wasn't what I was expecting, nobody needs my help." I replied as she handed me a drink.

"Well we're in Canterlot, the capital of Equestria isn't going to have many problems. Especially during the biggest event of the year."

"Yeah…but I was hoping for something." I said gulping down the drink and giving a sigh, "Oh well, guess I'll just sit here."

"Gareth you're at the biggest social even of the year with your friends. At least spend some time with us if nothing else while you're here." I guess she was right; Soren gave me a ticket to come here so I should at least spend time with the people I came with…including Sukia.

"Well then let's dance." I said grabbing her hoof and dragging her to the dance floor; we started dancing and I was glad to find I wasn't doing as badly as I expected; with the time I spent at Sweet Apple Acres AJ took the time to teach me how to square dance which at least gave me some experience with rhythm, I just had to make sure I didn't move to fast and kept time with the music. Suddenly I felt someone bump into me knocking me and Sukia over and I turned to see Soren on the ground as Princess Luna gave a worried look.

"Ow…" Soren said as he stood back up.

"It's okay Soren, I find it quiet cute how you can't dance, it's refreshing to the rest of these others who only know formal dancing." Luna said with a big smile.

"You don't like formal dancing?" I asked.

"It just becomes boring after a while; I knew knights weren't versed in dancing so I was sure Soren would make an interesting dance partner."

"So you knew I would fail?" Soren asked and Luna became slightly flustered.

"Are you made at me?"

"No I'm glad to dance with you Luna, but you owe me a lesson."

"Fair enough, I'll teach you the basics." With that they walked off to continue dancing; they looked like they were having fun at least.

"Shall we keep dancing Gareth?"

"Of course Sukia." Taking her hoof we continued where we left off.

"So how's it been for you so far Sukia?"

"Well I've talked with a few people but they don't offer any interesting conversation; they all feel very bland and boring."

"Really? Here I thought you would fit in well with these people, you are the classiest of the group.

"Maybe but being around others like me is boring, I like spending time with you guys because you all have such wild personalities."

"We don't have wild personalities…do we?"

"Well Alice is cool on the surface but impulsive and shy when dealing with the truth, Lily is shy but very passionate when it comes to what she cares about. The twins are pranksters with very intricate schemes and yet always know when to stop; I think that's why they continue to tease Soren. You are very intense and are always up for a challenge, you also like to see everyone around you happy which is why you want to help out even now."

"True...and Soren?"

"Soren is confident and is always ready to help out his friends when they need him, he's impulsive and a little bit dense but he protects his friends with everything he can, even putting himself in harm's way but he still trusts us to help him when he needs it, he's a true knight."

"Yeah…we still haven't figured out why his cutie mark can transfer abilities to other ponies." It's been months and Soren hasn't been able to figure anything out; he even used it without thinking when he was in that dream with Luna.

"I'm sure everything will work out, you guys will figure it out."

"You guys? You're his friend to Sukia."

"Even so…I get the feeling you four are going to figure it out as a group. You four have some sort of connection that I can't quiet place." She spoke with a sense of seriousness that even had me believing her; but then what was the connection that brought us together…maybe I should talk with the others about this, "I know that look in your eye, don't worry about it right now. For now let's just enjoy the night." As we kept dancing I still couldn't shake what she said off my mind.

Lily

"There he is!" Alice said much giddier than normal as she looked at the Wonderbolt Soarin and tried to stay calm as she jittered and moved around happily; it was freaky to see her so hyped up considering her normal calm look…or in the case of Soren her angry look. I waved to Rainbow Dash and she let us into the VIP section with her; it was full of up class ponies that seemed even more up class than any other ponies at the Gala. If it were anymore up class then the ponies here would have two monocles; as I looked around Alice had her eyes glued on Soarin as Rainbow Dash brought him and another Wonderbolt to us.

"Spitfire, Soarin, this is Alice and Lily. They're two of my friends from Ponyville." Rainbow said motioning to us and Alice turned redder as Soarin looked at her.

"So you're Lily, I hear you keep record of Dash's speeds for her." Spitfire said and I gave a nod pulling out my journal and showing my record page for Rainbow Dash, "Not bad, these are actually pretty impressive Rainbow Dash." As Spitfire said that a blush of embarrassment came over Rainbow…and me, "So Lily, what's your job?"

"I-I keep records at Ponyville and o-organize the files." I answered as she closed the book and handed it back to me, "It keeps bread on the table and makes sure my skills are sharp."

"True enough…you know, the Wonderbolts are always looking for someone to keep records on up and coming recruits; if you're interested then I think you might have a spot."

"R-R-R-Really? B-B-But I don't exactly have any great qualities, I'm not a great flyer th-that's for sure." I replied sheepishly, it was a big opportunity but I don't deserve it.

"We don't need great flyers, just people with a keen eye for catching detail and from the looks of your book it seems you have just that. Think about applying at least." With that Spitfire and Rainbow walked away leaving me and Alice there…where did she go, and where is Soarin?

"Lily!" I turned around to see Gareth giving his usual big grin to me.

"Gareth? What are you doing here?" I aksed surprised he was in the VIP section…not that he couldn't be here it's just I don't think he would be here even of his free will, he doesn't really like high class events.

"They needed someone to bring extra food to the VIP section and I volunteered. What about you?"

"Rainbow let me come in with Alice. H-Hey since you're here w-w-would you like t-to dance?"

"Sure, I wouldn't mind that!" He replied and we moved to the dance floor; hopefully he doesn't notice how bad I am at dancing, "Ow! I think you stepped on my hooves." Too late.

Alice

"Hey…aren't you the pony that developed the uniform for cloud movers?" Soarin asked and I felt my heart flutter; not only was my crush talking to me but he knew of some of my work…this was awesome! A lot of ponies have crushes on some of the Wonderbolts but they like the stoic and strong looking ponies or the showoffs; Soarin is better than them though, even though he's a Wonderbolt and worked hard to become one he isn't cocky about it. He's one of the most down to earth Wonderbolts there is, he's a happy go lucky pony but still has the skill and abilities to show he's qualified to be a Wonderbolt…it made him very appealing to me.

"Yes…that was me, hehe." I laughed nervously twirling my bangs with my magic nervously.

"Wow! You know I heard that they've been making sure those stay strong and usable because of how great they were. You really amazed them with your work."

"W-W-Well thanks, that means a lot." I was a stuttering mess; I guess it's like this for others who talk to somepony they like, okay Alice deep breaths, "S-S-So what's it like b-b-being and W-Wonderbolt." Damnit.

"It wasn't easy to get this far but I'm proud to be where I am now, I won't let my hard work go to waste."

"Hey I've noticed that during your time as a Wonderbolt you always seem to be more relatable than other ponies in the group, why are you like that?"

"My grandma always told me that no matter how far you go or how much you achive that you should never lose sight of what's truly important; for me that's always been my humility and making sure I don't become too proud."

"That's…actually pretty sweet. Your grandma sound like a great pony."

"Yeah…she is." It was a moment of silence between us and suddenly Spitfire called Soarin over breaking the silence, "I've gotta go but…let's stay in contact." Grabbing a nearby napkin he wrote down something and gave it to me, "Here. I'll see you later." As he walked away I looked at the napkin to see it was his mail address…this is the greatest day of my life!

"Gah!" I felt someone knock into me sending us both down and looked to see Soren with a dizzy look on his face, "Too much twirling." Standing up I looked at the napkin to see it was slightly crumpled and smudged.

"Soren!" I yelled and he looked up at me, "You almost destroyed this napkin!"

"Napkin?"

"It has Soarin's mail address on it!"

"You know where I live already." Giving him a knock on the head he gave me his usual confused look as he rubbed the bump.

"Not you, Soarin the Wonderbolt." I said and he looked at the napkin intensly.

"Sorry, luckily it's still readable but I didn't mean to."

"What were you doing?"

"Luna wanted to practice twirling and the short answer is she did better than me." He said with a chuckle that made me smile.

"Maybe you should dance with a pony more your size instead."

"That would help." Luna said approaching us, "Me being taller has made it hard for him to lead…how about he dances with you Alice?"

"Me?"

"Do you not know how to dance?"

"Well…I do…but are you sure me?"

"Please Alice…I don't think I can take another face plant to the ground." Soren said with a smile at Luna who rolled her eyes and giggled.

"…Okay." I replied and Soren's face lit up like child; we moved to the dance floor and I followed Soren's footsteps making sure his mistakes didn't ruin my hooves, "You're not bad but make sure to be confident in your steps, I'll follow, trust me." With that his worried face turned to one of confidence and he started moving smoothly as I followed in his steps.

"So when did you learn to dance?" He asked.

"When I began my work under Rarity she insisted that I learn how to dance; she was obsessed with it. So I took the class to finally stop her complaining." He gave a laugh and I gave a pout, "Hey, what's so funny?"

"It's just weird to think of you in a ballet costume."

"Don't expect it anytime soon." We both laughed as we danced and some ponies gave us glares as we were breaking the classy air but I didn't care.

"You do look nice tonight though. It's very you."

"Well thanks...it's a pretty plain dress though."

"Not at all, your dress shows a hidden beauty that only those close to you know."

"What hidden beauty?"

"You. You're an awesome pony and that's what makes the dress so great." As he gave me his honest smile I felt my heart skip a beat at his compliment.

"I-I-Idiot!" I knocked him on the head again and looked away embarrassed; why did he have to say that, now my heart is beating really fast.

"You two look like you're having fun." I turned to see Gareth and Lily standing there laughing at us.

"S-Shut up! I think I'm done dancing for now anyway." I said walking away before Soren pulled me back to the group.

"If that's the case then I know where we should head." He said to all of us, "Follow me." As he led us there was a loud crash and animals began to flood the ballroom, "And quickly, I think the partyis over." We all gave a nod and rushed towards the entrance; the last thing I heard was Fluttershy shouting loudly, here I thought she couldn't shout.

Soren

After finding Sukia we all headed out; opening the door everyone entered Joe's donut shop and as I walked in last I noticed Spike sitting at the counter with a pout on his face; he must have had a hard night. The bell to the door chimed and I turned to see Twilight and the gang all looking like they had been torn up by a twister…made of cake and dust.

"You six look more sullen than a diamond dog." Gareth blurted out and they all sighed, I'm guessing they were ready to tell us a story.

"Wow that sounds horrible." Gareth blurted after their stories.

"It was!" They all said in unison followed by a long sigh.

"What about you guys?" Twilight asked.

"It wasn't bad, I learned how to dance." I answered.

"I got to meet Soarin of the Wonderbolts."

"I got a recommendation to apply for a job from the Wonderbolts; apparently they need record keepers."

"I realized high class ponies are boring."

"And I…just enjoyed myself, wasn't much else than that."

"Sounds like you all had a better night then us." Rarity said dusting the cake off her dress; wasn't helping the stains though and by her whimpering face I'm guessing she knew it was a lost cause as well.

"It was the worst Gala ever." They all said looking down sadly.

"That was the best Gala ever!" Looking at the doorway I saw Celestia and Luna standing there with smiles on their faces.

"I can't disagree with the beginning but the second half with the animals wasn't so great." Sukia said.

"The Gala is always terrible, high class ponies are always very boring." Luna said with a smile, "But that's why we invited you guys."

"We knew you would liven up the party." Celestia said as she and Luna sat down at the table with us. For the rest of the night we spent time just sitting and talking as a big group of friends; Celestia even told us stories of past Galas and how boring they became over the years, she even told a few stories of how she herself tried to liven it up but didn't end up in such a great situation, "Hot sauce may not have been the best idea." We all gave a laugh and I felt a sense of peace and calm in that moment; this was definitely one night I wouldn't forget; not just because I know knew that Celestia had been the cause behind the Gala hot sauce incident two years ago but because this was a night I enjoyed with all of my friends at once.


End file.
